Have you noticed how many conversations you have each day that are based upon anecdotes? It probably started with “how did you sleep last night?” Today’s fitness monitors are changing all that. You can now see your sleep pattern, how quickly you fall asleep, how deep your sleep is, etc. Sure, the engineers on this blog will say that the analytics are not precise, but they are certainly a lot more precise than the anecdotes they are replacing.
The energy industry is facing a similar transition. It is moving way past segmentation and personas (which are even less personal than anecdotes) to personalized messaging methods. But, the next big wave will be the transition to business analytics platforms. Here are just a few examples:
Home Performance Analytics – Consider not just the age and size of the home, but the actual operating energy performance. How would you like to know which homes are the most efficient and the least efficient without talking to the customer at all? While it is obvious from the electric bills which homes have gas heat, why not pick out the homes that are using space heaters as well? Why not pick out homes that have significant air distribution losses. Spot those old heat pumps before they fail and help customers see the benefits of replacing them with new ones while also finding customers running space heaters and show them the benefits of the new through-the-wall high-efficiency heat pumps?
Home Behavior Analytics – We have proven we can now identify how homeowners are setting their thermostats just from the same billing histories we have always used in the past! Yes, you read that correctly. So, perhaps you might like to target customers who are holding cool temperatures for your demand response program for this next summer. Use your creative side to think of all the ways this might help you target customers for all types of programs and services. In addition, our math lets you compare each and every home to itself in the past … M&V on a home-by-home basis.
Home Progress Reports – Offer all your customers year-on-year and even month-to-month progress reports showing them how their energy use is really changing. Otherwise, customers get fooled into thinking that their savings efforts are in vain when their improvements are blunted by colder than normal winters and then hotter than normal summers.
It is time to replace the stories about how energy is used in the home with real, reliable analytics. Give us a call to see how we can make this a reality in your company.
678-684-6801 or [email protected]