Energy Management Systems for Buildings are Booming

[David__77]

3. OK...

http://cgec.ucdavis.edu/ACEEE/1994-96/1996/VOL06/163.PDF

This paper shows that the bin method of estimating energy savings results in wildly inaccurate savings estimates, when checked against properly calibrated energy simulations of the same projects. While this paper shows the inaccuracy being both high and low, in my practice, I see more overestimation. That is because the analyst can tweak things or make methodological errors that would lead to a higher estimate and therefore a more attractive product from the customer perspective.

A problem in practice is that the system operator may override the energy savings settings, reducing system savings. There are all kinds of things that can go wrong, but the "clean" bin method does not account for this.