Variable Importance Analysis for Urban Building Energy Assessment in the Presence of Correlated Factors

Song Yang; Wei Tian; Yeonsook Heo; Qingxing Meng; Lai Wei

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.1069

Variable Importance Analysis for Urban Building Energy Assessment in the Presence of Correlated Factors

Song Yang, Wei Tian, Yeonsook Heo, Qingxing Meng, Lai Wei

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It is becoming urgent to thoroughly understand characteristics of energy use in order to reduce energy use in urban areas. When assessing energy performance in urban buildings, it is likely that explanatory variables are correlated if considering both physical conditions and social economic factors. This research applied three variable importance methods, including Genizi, CAR (Correlation-Adjusted marginal coRrelation), PCC (partial correlation coefficient), to identify key factors from 30 highly correlated variables in London. The results indicate that the land area for domestic buildings is the only dominant variable influencing gas use, while electricity consumption is more affected by the number of electricity meters for Economy 7 (a differential electricity tariff according to the time of day) and the number of households allocated to higher council tax band in London. Moreover, it is confirmed that the SRC (standardized regression coefficient), a commonly used method in building energy analysis, is not suitable for the correlated factors in urban energy assessment.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	277-284
Number of pages	8
Journal	Procedia Engineering
Volume	121
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.1069
Publication status	Published - 2015
Externally published	Yes
Event	9th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, ISHVAC 2015 Joint with the 3rd International Conference on Building Energy and Environment, COBEE 2015 - Tianjin, China Duration: 2015 Jul 12 → 2015 Jul 15

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research is supported by the Tianjin Research Program of Application Foundation and Advanced Technology (No. 14JCYBJC42600) and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry of China.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

Building energy
Correlated variables
Urban environment
Variable importance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Engineering(all)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.1069

Cite this

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title = "Variable Importance Analysis for Urban Building Energy Assessment in the Presence of Correlated Factors",

abstract = "It is becoming urgent to thoroughly understand characteristics of energy use in order to reduce energy use in urban areas. When assessing energy performance in urban buildings, it is likely that explanatory variables are correlated if considering both physical conditions and social economic factors. This research applied three variable importance methods, including Genizi, CAR (Correlation-Adjusted marginal coRrelation), PCC (partial correlation coefficient), to identify key factors from 30 highly correlated variables in London. The results indicate that the land area for domestic buildings is the only dominant variable influencing gas use, while electricity consumption is more affected by the number of electricity meters for Economy 7 (a differential electricity tariff according to the time of day) and the number of households allocated to higher council tax band in London. Moreover, it is confirmed that the SRC (standardized regression coefficient), a commonly used method in building energy analysis, is not suitable for the correlated factors in urban energy assessment.",

keywords = "Building energy, Correlated variables, Urban environment, Variable importance",

author = "Song Yang and Wei Tian and Yeonsook Heo and Qingxing Meng and Lai Wei",

note = "Funding Information: This research is supported by the Tianjin Research Program of Application Foundation and Advanced Technology (No. 14JCYBJC42600) and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry of China. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.; 9th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, ISHVAC 2015 Joint with the 3rd International Conference on Building Energy and Environment, COBEE 2015 ; Conference date: 12-07-2015 Through 15-07-2015",

year = "2015",

doi = "10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.1069",

language = "English",

volume = "121",

pages = "277--284",

journal = "Procedia Engineering",

issn = "1877-7058",

publisher = "Elsevier BV",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Variable Importance Analysis for Urban Building Energy Assessment in the Presence of Correlated Factors

AU - Yang, Song

AU - Tian, Wei

AU - Heo, Yeonsook

AU - Meng, Qingxing

AU - Wei, Lai

N1 - Funding Information: This research is supported by the Tianjin Research Program of Application Foundation and Advanced Technology (No. 14JCYBJC42600) and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry of China. Publisher Copyright: © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - It is becoming urgent to thoroughly understand characteristics of energy use in order to reduce energy use in urban areas. When assessing energy performance in urban buildings, it is likely that explanatory variables are correlated if considering both physical conditions and social economic factors. This research applied three variable importance methods, including Genizi, CAR (Correlation-Adjusted marginal coRrelation), PCC (partial correlation coefficient), to identify key factors from 30 highly correlated variables in London. The results indicate that the land area for domestic buildings is the only dominant variable influencing gas use, while electricity consumption is more affected by the number of electricity meters for Economy 7 (a differential electricity tariff according to the time of day) and the number of households allocated to higher council tax band in London. Moreover, it is confirmed that the SRC (standardized regression coefficient), a commonly used method in building energy analysis, is not suitable for the correlated factors in urban energy assessment.

AB - It is becoming urgent to thoroughly understand characteristics of energy use in order to reduce energy use in urban areas. When assessing energy performance in urban buildings, it is likely that explanatory variables are correlated if considering both physical conditions and social economic factors. This research applied three variable importance methods, including Genizi, CAR (Correlation-Adjusted marginal coRrelation), PCC (partial correlation coefficient), to identify key factors from 30 highly correlated variables in London. The results indicate that the land area for domestic buildings is the only dominant variable influencing gas use, while electricity consumption is more affected by the number of electricity meters for Economy 7 (a differential electricity tariff according to the time of day) and the number of households allocated to higher council tax band in London. Moreover, it is confirmed that the SRC (standardized regression coefficient), a commonly used method in building energy analysis, is not suitable for the correlated factors in urban energy assessment.

KW - Building energy

KW - Correlated variables

KW - Urban environment

KW - Variable importance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84957867434&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.1069

DO - 10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.1069

M3 - Conference article

AN - SCOPUS:84957867434

SN - 1877-7058

VL - 121

SP - 277

EP - 284

JO - Procedia Engineering

JF - Procedia Engineering

T2 - 9th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, ISHVAC 2015 Joint with the 3rd International Conference on Building Energy and Environment, COBEE 2015

Y2 - 12 July 2015 through 15 July 2015

ER -

Variable Importance Analysis for Urban Building Energy Assessment in the Presence of Correlated Factors

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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