Investigating the impact of data normalization methods on predicting electricity consumption in a building using different artificial neural network models

• The novel analysis strategy developed to understand data normalization method. • The significant influence of data normalization on the predictive capabilities of various ANN models • More effective combinations of ANN models with specific data normalization strategies • Evaluating the correlation between each data normalization method on the energy consumption The study investigates the impact of data normalization on the prediction of electricity consumption in buildings using four multilayer Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) algorithms: Long Short-Term Memory Networks (LSTM), Levenberg-Marquardt Back-propagation (LMBP), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), and General Regression Neural Network (GRNN). Four data normalization approaches, Min-Max Scaling, Mean, Z-score, and Gaussian function were assessed on experimental datasets. The LSTM algorithm, when combined with Min-Max normalization, showed the most favorable predictive capabilities, with a low Coefficient of Variation of the Root Mean Square Error (CVRMSE) of 10.3 and Normalized Mean Bias Error (NMBE) of 0.6. The remaining three normalization approaches showed satisfactory concordance with empirical data, but with slight disparities in precision. The LMBP model, when using Z-score normalization, had favorable performance in forecasting electricity consumption, but the discrepancies across the models were not significant. The Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model, when used with Gaussian normalization, exhibited the most favorable performance, with the lowest Coefficient of Variation of Root Mean Square Error (CVRMSE) at 11.8 and Normalized Mean Biased Error (NMBE) at 0.6. The Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN) model, trained on unprocessed data, exhibited superior performance, with the lowest Coefficient of Variation of Root Mean Square Error (CVRMSE) at 19.2 and NMBE at 1.0. In conclusion, the study highlights the significant influence of data normalization on the predictive capabilities of various ANN models, suggesting that careful use of data normalization techniques can significantly improve the accuracy of electricity consumption forecasting in buildings.