Heatmap Analysis

By Luke Miller

- 2 minute read - 409 words

This is an article I wrote for Verv during their Seedrs fundraising campaign in March 2024. Link to article.

This January, we finished the installation of the first Verv Smart Isolator with our partner Nido, a Spanish heat pump provider. A Verv Smart Isolator was attached to an air-to-water heat pump and in less than a week, we provided actionable insights for the customer.

One of the tools that helps us understand the energy usage patterns is the energy-utilization heatmap. The heatmap visualizes the hourly energy consumption over different days (vertical axis) and times of day (horizontal axis). The intensity of colour - marked in the legend - represents the energy expenditure during each hour, with darker colours indicating higher usage.

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Key insights: daily profiles & outliers

We finished installation on 24th January and immediately started gathering data. One notable observation from this heatmap is the emergence of a distinct daily profile, characterised by heightened energy consumption starting around 11 AM and gradually tapering off between 4 to 6 PM.

However, an outlier was detected on the evening of January 26th: a noticeable surge in heating expenditure at around 7PM. While the exact cause of this spike is not currently known to us, it hints at the possibility of an out-of-hours heating boost. This is worth monitoring and reporting back to the client if it occurs regularly.

Opportunity for optimization

Additionally, the analysis unveiled a persistent energy usage during late and early hours. We immediately took action and recommended Nido to advise their client on the potential for reducing overnight usage to minimise energy wastage and carbon footprint.

Furthermore, fluctuations in peak usage highlights the probable influence of weather patterns, notably temperature, on the heat pump’s workload. Warmer weather conditions could explain the decreased demand on the system evident on January 27th and 29th — a correlation that could later be corroborated through comparison with data extracted from our weather service.

Next steps

We are excited that already within the first week from deployment, the Verv team were able to make actionable recommendations based on the data gathered by the Smart Isolators.

We look forward to finding future insights gleaned not only from this heat pump, but also from others slated for installation by Nido in the coming weeks. With the addition of each device we will surely develop a broader understanding of the usage patterns behind Nido’s clients’ heat pumps, offering up further opportunities to optimize energy consumption.