Hybrid residential end-use energy and greenhouse gas emissions model – development and verification for Canada

This article presents the Canadian Hybrid Residential End-Use Energy and GHG Emissions Model (CHREM), a model based upon building performance simulation, and compares its estimates with residential sector energy consumption surveys and the estimates of other models. The CHREM advances the state of the art of residential sector energy consumption and green house gas (GHG) emissions modelling by three new contributions: (i) the use of a database of 16,952 unique house descriptions of thermal envelope and energy conversion system information that statistically represent the Canadian housing stock; (ii) a ‘hybrid’ modelling approach that integrates the neural network and engineering modelling methods to estimate the energy consumption of the major end-uses, providing the capacity to model alternative and renewable energy technologies, such as solar energy and energy storage systems; and (iii) a method for the accumulation and treatment of energy consumption and GHG emissions results as a function of end-use and energy source.