An energy monitoring campaign was performed during the last February and March in Valencia and surrounding area. The purpose of this campaign was to gather evidence of renovation needs and benefits in order to assist the Citizen Hub in effectively explaining and showcasing real-life examples to customers. Additionally, it aimed to evaluate the validity of the recommendations provided by the Hub.
After a selection process among more than 250 registered dwellings, 23 dwellings were monitored during a week. Of these, 10 were single family houses and 13 were apartments. Besides, 9 of them had made energy improvements in their houses, for example, changing the windows, insulating the envelope, installing aerothermal systems and/or installing photovoltaic panels to produce electricity.
The campaign consisted of a thermographic study of the building’s envelope, the collection of indoor and outdoor temperature and relative humidity data, the energy consumption through the smart meter data, the indoor environmental quality data (CO2 and level of particles) and subjective indoor comfort and wellbeing. A complete interview with the occupants was performed for each dwelling and, in the case of the renovated ones, they were asked for their feedback for the whole renovation process. Energy performance certificates were issued for the 9 of the dwellings that chose it, and the rest were given an energy efficiency kit.
After the data collection and analysis, a report for each dwelling was prepared and sent to the dwelling’s owners where the results of the analysis and the personalized recommendations are shown. These recommendations, based on the monitoring data, are divided in two categories according to their main objective: (1) saving energy and (2) improving the indoor occupant’s comfort. Likewise, the recommendations are divided into three levels based on their economic cost: free habits and measures, low-cost improvement measures, and measures with economic investment that involve an energy refurbishment.
