Heat Transfer Coefficient software for building thermal performance - advice needed

Hello, I am the non-techie person working on a project to develop a machine learning software tool that can generate a Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) (an indicator of heat loss from a whole building) from smart meter (or equivalent) data and internal/external temperature data. At the moment this is arduously done using a co-heating test, and is built into the SAP for building assessment.

This HTC could be integrated into software to evaluate the thermal performance of a building (domestic sector at the moment) pre and post energy efficiency improvements. It could also be integrated into an energy monitoring platform and combined with temperature and humidity data as a tool for energy advice.

There is an interesting and informative forum post in the archive on HTC for more information. (Static coheating module | Archived Forum )
And also some basic information on Heat Transfer Coefficients here:
(Energy in buildings: 2.4.1 Calculating the total heat loss of a house - OpenLearn - Open University - T313_1)

The charity I work for want to make the HTC software freely available when it is ready. Which it isn’t yet, it is still being tested, and so far on simulated data only. We are deploying one data logger per internal room and one externally in properties, but these loggers need to be retrieved to be able to download the data; they are not internet-connected. And C19 has made it impossible for us to retrieve the data loggers!

In the meantime I’d like to ask your advice:

  1. How we can make this bit of software as accessible as possible? How would it need to be packaged?
  2. What would you need to know to be sure of the accuracy of the HTC generated for a home?
  3. Is there anything else you’d need to know be able to integrate it into new or existing applications?
  4. Is there anything else we need to think about before making the software available?

One area we are interested in is having the HTC potentially as part of a platform that integrates energy, temperature and humidity data to be able to give energy advice. We created a platform a few years ago and trialled it in low income households, with gas heating and also with night storage heaters. I’m trying to learn more about how we might resurrect that platform, or adopt a new one. Just to give a bit of context.

I can easily pass on messages to the software programmer or get him involved with any questions. Thanks for your help.
Karen

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