Forecasting Residential Heating and Electricity Demand with Scalable, High-Resolution, Open-Source Models

Abstract

We present a novel framework for high-resolution forecasting of residential heating demand and non-heating electricity demand using probabilistic deep learning models. Because our models are trained on electricity consumption from a predominantly gas-heated region, the learned electricity demand patterns primarily reflect non-heating end uses such as lighting, appliances, and cooling. We focus specifically on providing hourly building-level electricity and heating demand forecasts for the residential sector. Leveraging multimodal building-level information -- including data on building footprint areas, heights, nearby building density, nearby building size, land use patterns, and high-resolution weather data -- and probabilistic modeling, our methods provide granular insights into demand heterogeneity. Validation at the building level underscores a step change improvement in performance relative to NREL's ResStock model, which has emerged as a research community standard for residential heating and electricity demand characterization. In building-level heating and electricity estimation backtests, our probabilistic models respectively achieve RMSE scores 18.8% and 27.6% lower than those based on ResStock, with probabilistic forecast quality measured via WIS improving by 59% for both applications. By offering an open-source, scalable, high-resolution platform for demand estimation and forecasting, this research advances the tools available for policymakers and grid planners, contributing to the broader effort to decarbonize the U.S. building stock and meeting climate objectives.