DarkGreyBox: An open-source python building thermal model inspired by Genetic Algorithms and Machine Learning
Why is this important?
Constructing simple, accurate and easy-to-interpret thermal models for existing buildings is essential in reducing the environmental impact of our built environment. Think about a large office building that is currently heated by natural gas boilers — how would you evaluate the potential reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions in case the boilers were replaced by a heat pump system which have greatly varying efficiencies at different flow temperatures?
Another interesting area to investigate is demand-side response (DSR). Imagine that the proposed heat pump system is connected to the National Grid Carbon Intensity API, which provides 24-hour forecasts of electricity carbon intensity at…
How to create beautiful plots for time-series datasets with periodicity
What are 2D Overlay Plots?
Many different species of time-series data exist and choosing the right way to visualise them is not always simple. Data with periodicity can be particularly challenging to visualise as in many cases the periodicity gets lost due to the sheer amount of data on a single plot.
This is not that surprising considering that most humans would find it rather difficult to recognise anything on a 1-dimensional photograph, with the pixels being shown in a single row. However, once the pixels are rearranged in the correct 2-dimensional format that problem magically goes away!
Similarly, applying simple transformations on data with…
Csaba Zagoni
Data Scientist at Upside Energy and Environmental Advisor at Greenpeace UK. Strategic guidance & data-driven insight to drive innovation on future of green tech
