Specific Verification Protocol/NPL/2016
SPECIFIC VERIFICATION PROTOCOL
OpenTRV “TRV1”
Prepared By: National Physical Laboratory
Prepared for proposer:OpenTRV
Status:Draft version
Date:13 June 2016
Authorised by:Name:
Contact:
Role:
Address: / National Physical Laboratory
Dave Lowe
Technical Expert
Hampton Road
Teddington
Middlesex
TW11 0LW
UK / Name:
Contact:
Role:
Address: / National Physical Laboratory
Marieke Beckmann
ETV Project Manager
Hampton Road
Teddington
Middlesex
TW11 0LW
UK
Telephone:
E-mail: / +44 (0) 20 8943 6312
/ Telephone:
E-mail: / +44 (0) 2089 438750
Website: / / Website: /
Signature:
Date: / Signature:
Date:
Specific Verification Protocol/NPL/2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1INTRODUCTION
1.1Name of technology
1.2Name and contact of proposer
1.3Name of Verification Body and responsible for verification
1.4Organisation of verification including experts
1.5Verification Process
2DESCRIPTION OF THE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION
2.1Summary description of the technology
2.2Intended application including matrix, purpose, technologies, technical conditions
2.2.1Matrix
2.2.2Purpose
2.3Associated environmental emissions and/or impacts
3VERIFICATION PARAMETERS DEFINITION
3.1Performance parameters
3.2Operational parameters
3.3Environmental parameters
4REQUIREMENTS ON TEST DESIGN AND DATA QUALITY
4.1Test design
4.2Reference analysis and measurements
4.3Data management
4.4Quality assurance
4.5Test report requirements
5EVALUATION
5.1Summary of existing data
5.2Acceptance of existing data
5.3Conclusion on the need or not for additional tests and measures
6EVALUATION METHODS
6.1Calculation of performance parameters
6.2Evaluation of test quality
6.3Comments on additional parameters
7VERIFICATION SCHEDULE
8QUALITY ASSURANCE
9REFERENCES
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Organisation of verification process and experts involved...... 4
Figure 2: Graph showing building heating efficiency performance………………………………………………….. 8
LIST OF TABLES
1INTRODUCTION
1.1Name of technology
OpenTRV “TRV 1”
1.2Name and contact of proposer
Name:Mark Hill
Address: OpenTRV
46 Elmside
Guildford
Surrey
GU2 7SJ
Tel:+447798 500570
Email:
1.3Name of Verification Body and responsible for verification
Name:National Physical Laboratory
Address:Hampton Road
Teddington
Middlesex
TW11 0LW
UK
Tel:+44 20 8943 6964
Verification Expert:Dave LoweEmail:@npl.co.uk
1.4Organisation of verification including experts
The verification will be coordinated and managed by NPL, which has been accredited to the requirements of BS EN ISO/IEC 17020:2012 for an inspection body type A.
Internal and external technical experts have been assigned to provide independent review of the planning, conducting and reporting of the verification process.
- Internal Technical Expert: Adam Greenen, Higher Research Scientist, Temperature & Humidity, NPL, e-mail:
- External Technical Expert: Rajvant Nijjhar, Principle, iVEES, e-mail:
The relationship between the organisations and individuals involved can be seen in Figure 1.
1.5Verification Process
An overview of the verification process is show in Table 1.
Stage / Responsibility / DocumentPreliminary phase / Verification Body / Quick Scan
Contract/Proposal
Specific Verification Protocol
Testing phase / Proposer / Test Plan
Test Report
Verification phase / Verification Body / Verification Report
Statement of Verification
Table 1: Overview of the verification process under the EU ETV Pilot Programme
Quality assurance will be undertaken by all technical experts involved in the verification process (see section 8). The Statement of Verification will be issued by NPL after the completion of the verification process.
2DESCRIPTION OF THE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION
2.1Summary description of the technology
OpenTRV is a low cost, simple to use, retrofit heating control for radiators with occupancy sensing. Intelligent learning algorithms predict future occupancy and lower the temperature in the room if it predicts no one will be present in the near future.
Large buildings have zoning in their sophisticated BMS (Building Management Systems) but small buildings lack these controls, as until the advent of IoT (the “Internet of Things”, with microprocessors and data communications distributed to small devices such as ‘smart’ sensors and appliances), they were too expensive with a payback period of 4-5 years. The payback period for OpenTRV is intended to be less than one year, meaning it has the potential to reach a huge, unserved market.
2.2Intended application including matrix, purpose, technologies, technical conditions
The intended application of the technology for verification is defined in terms of the matrix and the purpose.
2.2.1Matrix
Energy efficient space heating.
2.2.2Purpose
The purpose of the technology is to reduce carbon emissions, improve health outcomes and manage fuel spend more wisely. Technologies include occupancy detection and prediction algorithms, IoT, and automatically dividing the building into heating zones, with the aim to deliver carbon savings in the MtCO2 range through energy usage reduction.
2.3Associated environmental emissions and/or impacts
As a social enterprise, OpenTRV intends, in the long term, to follow in the footsteps of Fairphone and similar for its manufacturing and use of conflict- free minerals.
The key opportunity is to save up to 8% of EU's entire carbon emissions for EUR 230 per home with smarter automated space heating controls.
OpenTRV units require batteries, although the business plan includes development of an energy harvesting version to remove this requirement. Existing units should be upgradeable to the energy harvesting version. Otherwise the OpenTRV devices have a similar environmental footprint to existing heating control options that OpenTRV would replace.
By offering upgrade paths and operating in a market with a 20 year cycle, OpenTRV will be encouraging reuse. WEEE directives should be followed, and other aspects of reuse, recycling and upcycling are part of OpenTRV’s plans to minimise the impact of the OpenTRV devices themselves.
3VERIFICATION PARAMETERS DEFINITION
This section will examine the different verification parameters of the technology.
3.1Performance parameters
The aim is to show reduced slope of normalised heating energy consumption as kWh/HDD (Heating Degree Days: a metric designed to measure the demand for energy needed to heat a building, being the product of time and number of degrees external temperature are below an agreed baseline that requires space heating) for primary household heating fuel use when OpenTRV is installed and enabled, indicating increased heating efficiency (and reduced waste / carbon) to maintain heating comfort.
Secondary (unverified) supporting metrics are:
- to show increased R^2 (correlation of household heat demand with HDD) for kWh/HDD for primary household heating fuel to show better control of heating fuel wrt to weather;
- to show improved room temperature stability during zone occupancy;
- to show room temperature during zone vacancy;
- to show effective room automatic temperature setbacks during zone vacancy.
PARAMETER / VALUE
Energy savings when using OpenTRV valves: industry-standard linear regression best-fit kWh/HDD slope (energy per Heating Degree Day) [see IPMVP in References] / 30%
Energy savings when using OpenTRV valves + boiler units: industry-standard kWh/HDD (energy per Heating Degree Day) / 50%
The following performance claims have been defined:
Table 2: List of performance parameters and their values
The performance parameters (in section 3) have set the requirements for the test design and data quality. The test plan will be prepared in accordance with the EU ETV General Verification Protocol (European Commission, 2014).
PARAMETER / CONDITIONSHouse Size / 50m2 to 500m2
No. of Rooms / No more than 8 heated
Heating system / A functional radiator based, usually gas-fired, central heating (no secondary systems)
SAP rating of House / Worse than EPC Band B
Baseline temperature for kWh/HDD / 15.5 ⁰C
Table 3: List of operational parameters and their values
3.2Test design
Where possible following IPMVP (International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol) principles, e.g. from EVO 10000 – 1:2012Retrofit Isolation Options.
Apply standard linear regression analysis to energy consumption vs local weather heating degree days to quantify change in heating efficiency and implied change in carbon footprint (slope kWh/HDD, plus robustness from r-squared).
3.3Reference analysis and measurements
Initially, some basic descriptive data on each household should be provided such as a rough approximate geographical location (e.g. "South east London, UK, 3 bedroom detached house, solid wall 1930s, family of 4, social housing, some fuel poverty issues") but not in form that allows (re-) identification of the household or occupants. The geographic location for the purpose of identifying a good nearby weather station as a source of heating degree days (HDD) is the most critical.
Inputs:
Heating Degree Days (daily and weekly) based on measurements from local weather station or similar suitable source (see operational constraints) should be collected.
Daily, weekly (or more frequent) regular space-heating fuel energy consumption measurements, e.g. from gas meter, over an absolute minimum of 1 week and 7 measurement points (e.g. weekly for 7 weeks or daily for 1 week), before and after installation/enabling OpenTRV technology. These energy consumption intervals should match the HDD intervals.
An optional record can be made of available details of heating system such as overall system design if possible, boiler name, model, age, SEDBUK or similar efficiency measures, maintenance schedule, number and sizes of radiators and valve types (TRV or not) and typical reported usage patterns.
Optional ‘before and after’ surveys of occupants to determine heating comfort/satisfaction, reported usage patterns (by time, level of interaction with heating system, frugal/other, etc) can be taken. Also understand any supplementary heating systems used, e.g. fan-heaters in addition to gas central heating.
Optionally, if available: record previous energy readings, e.g. from bills can be collected to provide additional baseline/control, in conjunction with matching historical HDD data.
Optionally, if available: record house construction and age, rdSAP (Reduced data Standard Assessment Procedure, see References) for building from public record, boiler type and SEDBUK or equivalent rating.
Establish energy intensity of heating fuel in kgCO2/kWh converting energy (kWh) savings to CO2 savings for reporting purposes, if direct readings in kWh or simply-convertible equivalent such as GJ are not available. For example, for gas-fired heating 11.1kWh/m^2 is a reasonable conversion.
Optionally, record any supplementary heating systems used, such as open fires, portable fan heaters, and even dehumidifiers.
Outputs:
Primary, verified: computed the change in kWh/HDD (and gross heat energy use) before and after OpenTRV installed/enabled. (A standard linear-regression method for computing slope and intercept automatically largely excludes typical baseload usage, e.g. for domestic hot water on same boiler as central heating.) See example graph below.
Supportive, not verified: compute the change in r-squared 'fit' before and after. A secondary sign of improved heating controls is an r-squared value that more closely approaches 1 (from Figure 2 below).
Supportive, not verified: record the change in user satisfaction/comfort/interaction as far as reasonably possible before and after enabling the energy-saving algorithm for example, probably mainly qualitative rather than quantitative, and other user comments. Anonymised results or extracts may be published.
3.4Data management
Data management (storage, transfer and control) will be done in accordance with the EU ETV General Verification Protocol (European Commission, 2014) and meet the requirements of ISO 17025. Further details are specified in the test plan.
3.5Quality assurance
In this instance, OpenTRV has chosen to carry out the testing required themselves. In order to ensure that all quality requirements provided in the EU ETV General Verification Protocol (European Commission, 2014) are met, NPL will implement specific audits/conditions in the place of proof of compliance that is provided through accreditation or certification. The test plan and report will be approved by NPL prior to initiating test activities.
3.6Test report requirements
The test report will follow requirements of ISO 17025 accreditation, including a statement of measurement uncertainty and traceability to national standards. The format of the test report will be based on the template included in the EU ETV General Verification Protocol (European Commission, 2014).
4EVALUATION
4.1Summary of existing data
No test data was provided by OpenTRV for evaluation under this verification because the existing test data does not demonstrate the performance parameters described.
4.2Acceptance of existing data
No existing data has been accepted for the verification of the OpenTRV.
4.3Conclusion on the need or not for additional tests and measures
The verification will be based on data from new tests only.
5EVALUATION METHODS
5.1Calculation of performance parameters
The input parameters for the primary (verified) performance metric are kWh of heating fuel for the household and Heating Degree Days for the geographic area of the household, both derived from calibrated sources via simple arithmetic procedures, over matching intervals, usually daily or weekly in order to span common usage cycles by occupants. Control or baseline intervals will be those where most or all of the energy-saving features are disabled.
The normalised heating efficiency measure derived is the slope of the linear regression best-fit line where HDD is the independent variable and kWh is the dependent variable, i.e. kWh/HDD.
The performance claim relates to the reduction this kWh/HDD slope, which, if weather were held constant, would indicate a corresponding reduction in space heating energy usage and thus consequent CO2 emissions.
5.2Evaluation of test quality
The test data provided in the test report will be evaluated against the requirements set in this specific verification protocol and the objectives set in the test plan.
5.3Comments on additional parameters
6VERIFICATION SCHEDULE
Table 4 presents the time schedule for the verification.
TASK / VERIFICATION BODYSpecific Verification Protocol preparation / Dec 2015 – May 2016
External review of Protocol / June 2016
Testing incl. planning and reporting
Verification report preparation / July 2016
External review of verification report / August – September 2016
Issuing of Statement of Verification / September 2016
Table 4: Time schedule for the ETV verification of OpenTRV
7QUALITY ASSURANCE
Table 5 demonstrates the breakdown of review between the organisations involved with the verification.
TASK / VERIFICATION BODY / PROPOSER / EXTERNAL EXPERTSpecific Verification Protocol / Review / Review
Test Plan / Review & Approve / Submit
Test Report / Review / Submit
Verification Report / Review / Review
Statement of Verification / Accept / Review
Table 5: Breakdown of responsibility between the organisations involved with the verification
The specific verification protocol and the verification report require external review according to the EU ETV General Verification Protocol (European Commission, 2011). The external review will be undertaken by Rajvant Nijjhar, Principal at iVEES.
The verification body, led by Dave Lowe, will review and approve the test plan and review the test report.
During the verification process the proposer represented by Damon Hart-Davis has the following tasks:
- Review the specific verification protocol
- Submit the test plan
- Write up the test report
- Review the verification report
- Accept the Statement of Verification
8REFERENCES
European Commission (2014): EU Environmental Technology Verification pilot programme. General Verification Protocol. Version 1.1. 7th of July 2014.
RdSAP: The Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) is the methodology used by the Government to assess and compare the energy and environmental performance of dwellings.
International Performance Measurement & Verification Protocol (IPMVP) especially (EVO 10000 – 1:2012)Retrofit Isolation Options
SO 50015:2014 Energy management systems — Measurement and verification of energy performance of organizations — General principles and guidance
ISO 50006:2014 Energy management systems -- Measuring energy performance using energy baselines (EnB) and energy performance indicators (EnPI) -- General principles and guidance
Linear regression analysis with best-fit kWh/HDD slope: see for example
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