Normalization overview

Normalization applies the weather from a selected comparison year to all utility bills. This removes weather as a variable and lets you compare energy use from year to year.

Why normalize data?

• Better year-to-year comparison of use.
• Shows energy use reduction attributable to your efforts, not because of weather variations.
• Valuable in long term EUI charts to see energy use reductions over time.

Limitations of normalization

• You cannot tune weather regressions by meter (like in Cost Avoidance) so you cannot adjust balance point temperature by meter or delete outliers.
• No adjustments are made, or can be made, for any other significant variables over time (occupancy, new loads, etc., although EUI charts do account for floor area).

When meters are not weather sensitive, normalized data equals calenderized data.

Weather-sensitive meters use the degree days from the user-defined normalization comparison year. Use Weather Data Depot to determine a typical degree day year as the comparison year, avoid using an extreme weather year.

Normalization shows estimated (hypothetical) data. "How much would I have used if the weather for all the years is equal to 2017?"

Normalization diagram