Modeling hourly profile of space heating energy consumption for residential buildings

The evaluation of energy consumption for space heating in urban environment is an interesting topic for the issues related to energy and pollution management. In the paper is presented the analysis of measured energy consumption for residential buildings located in the cities of Torino and Reggio Emilia (Italy). In the first analysis, space heating consumptions were correlated with climatic data. In the second analysis, the buildings have been grouped according to their energy signatures considering the observable characteristics (using a Geographical Information System, GIS) and the measured peak of energy request during the day. A correlation is shown between the hourly percentage peak of heat and the daily energy consumption for different outdoor temperatures; specifically, at the same temperature conditions, buildings with high peak of percentage hourly consumptions, show lower values of daily energy consumptions. This may be important to manage the district heating network for an optimization of the extension of the network, the heat storage stations localization or the gradual retrofit policy of buildings in the city.