Similar Homes

Energy usage is abstract and can be difficult for homeowners to understand. One way to help end users comprehend their energy usage is by providing insights into how their energy consumption compares with that of other similar homes. This gives the end user a better understanding of their energy usage and the ability to evaluate whether their energy usage is high or low, good or bad. Gaining insights into high-performing homes can help users understand how much potential energy savings could be achieved.

How does it work?

Based on the user's home profile, the user is grouped with the most similar homes in the Eliq platform. Eliq processes hundreds of thousands of homes each day to provide the most relevant comparison for each user, and groups are updated dynamically when a user changes their home profile. The energy data and comparison are updated daily, adding new homes to groups that have been added, and removing homes from groups if they are no longer relevant as a "contributor" due to an updated profile or missing energy data.

Get Similar Homes Consumption

This endpoint returns a list of the average energy usage of similar homes for a given period which is great for graphs and to give a simple 1 to 1 comparison between the end users home and everyone else.

Get Similar Homes Report

This endpoint is designed to provide a summary with more detailed information for a requested period of consumption, which is ideal for reports. The endpoint is designed to offer a summary with detailed information for a given time period. It will return the average consumption for similar homes, as well as a distribution of all similar homes divided into 10 equally sized groups based on their usage. The average usage for each group is presented in the list.

Based on this information, it is possible to see what percentage of homes are more efficient or less efficient than the location, and to make comparisons to the most efficient or least efficient homes.

Get Similar Homes Groups

Research shows that people are more likely to accept their comparison data if they understand what they are compared to. This endpoint returns the properties and the values that outline the groups of homes that the user is compared to.

Grouping is made up by a number of filters that are returned via the endpoint.

house_type

This filter defines what house types the location is compared to as defined by the key: house_type.

The limit_values can be used to present the type of house the users is compared to (e.g. detached house or apartment). There are a number of possible values defined in the limit_values which vary from country to country and that are based on the Home Profile.

heating_type_primary

This filter defines what heating types the location is compared to as defined by the key: heating_type_primary.

The limit_values provide the type of heating system that the end users is compared to (e.g. air-to-air heat pump or ground-source heat pump). There are a number of possible values defined in the limit_values which vary from country to country and that are based on the Home Profile.

living_area

Note: For some countries Eliq uses n.o. bedrooms, for other countries countries m² (living_area). This is due to what is common in each country when describing the size of a home.

This filter defines a minimum and maximum value for locations sizes that the requested location is being compared to as defined by the key: living_area.

The maximum and minimum values for a group are continuously updated to provide as accurate comparison data as possible but at the same time providing flexibility in the feature by providing similar homes comparison data for as many homes as possible. The more contributing homes in a group, the tighter the max and min intervals for a group will be.

The max value can be null meaning that the home is compared with homes based on the the minimum value or larger (e.g. 200 m2 larger).

persons

This filter defines a range of number of people that a location is compared to as defined by the key: persons.

The range defines the minimum and maximum values are continuously updated in the same way as living_area as explained above.

The max value can be null meaning that the home is compared with homes based on the the minimum value or larger (e.g. 2 people or more).

API Reference Documentation

Use Get Similar Homes Consumption to provide an average similar homes consumption value for a period and a home.

Use Get Similar Homes Report to provide an average similar homes consumption value for a period as well as a distributed list of the lowest and highest similar homes consumption values

Use Get Similar Homes Group to provide information and insight regarding what parameters are used as a basis for similar homes consumption.

Requirements

Home profile requirements

Similar Homes Insights are only available for residential homes (Locations with Residential Profile Types). Minimum requirement for any Similar Homes comparison data is that the requested Location set the property house_type. However, the comparison data that will be provided will only take that value into account. It is recommended that all of these Home Profile properties are present to provide the best chance for an accurate Similar Homes Comparison.

• House type
• Living area or number of bedrooms
• Primary heating source

Energy data requirements

At least one monthly of data for monthly comparison data or one full day of data for daily comparison data.

Use Cases

Monthly similar homes consumption comparison

Historic Similar Homes Comparison for a month including information on percentage difference as well as Similar Homes Groups data.

Similar homes consumption comparison at-a-glance

Similar homes could provide information at-a-glance together with other relevant data in a card on the home screen in an app. In this example, information about consumption “so far this current month”.

No data scenarios

Example of UI presented to the end user when it is not possible to provide Similar Homes data.

Help end users understand what they are compared with

To help end users understand and trust the data that is the basis for their similar homes comparison, it is possible to present details about the group they are being compared with looks like.

Report top 20%

An example of how similar homes report data can be visualised, including the average similar homes comparison as well as the end users home in relationship with the most efficient 20%.

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