Weather Insights Module

The Weather Insight module educates customers on how changes in temperature can affect their energy use. It also provides a comparison between the current month's average temperature and the average temperature from the same month of the previous year.

Design

This image shows an example of the module.

Configuration Options

For each element listed in the table, indicate the desired configuration in the Input Value column. If you do not provide an input for optional configurations, the default will be used.

Configuration Options	Input Value
Heading The default heading of the module varies depending on the state. These are the default headings by state: Cooler: Colder weather may have affected your energy use Warmer: Warmer weather may have affected your energy use Neutral: What caused your bill to change?	Optional Choose one of the following: Use the default headings. Use the following headings:
Subheading The default subheading of the module varies depending on the state. These are the default headings by state: Cooler: Energy use tends to be higher on colder days. Warmer: Energy use tends to be higher on warmer days. Neutral: The weather has been similar to this time last year, and may not have affected your bill.	Optional Choose one of the following: Use the default subheadings. Use the following subheadings:
Weather Insight Statement The default weather insight statement varies depending on the state. These are the default headings by state: Cooler: On average, this month was <temp> cooler than the same time last year. Warmer: On average this month was <temp> hotter than the same time last year. Neutral: Factors like heavy appliance use or household guests may have contributed.	Optional Choose one of the following: Display zero decimal places. (Default) Display this many decimal places:
Fahrenheit or Celsius The weather insight temperature can be measured in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius. Default: Fahrenheit	Optional Choose one of the following: Display degrees in Fahrenheit. (Default) Display degrees in Celsius.

Configuration Options

Input Value

Heading

The default heading of the module varies depending on the state. These are the default headings by state:

Cooler: Colder weather may have affected your energy use
Warmer: Warmer weather may have affected your energy use
Neutral: What caused your bill to change?

Optional

Choose one of the following:

Use the default headings.

Use the following headings:

Subheading

The default subheading of the module varies depending on the state. These are the default headings by state:

Cooler: Energy use tends to be higher on colder days.
Warmer: Energy use tends to be higher on warmer days.
Neutral: The weather has been similar to this time last year, and may not have affected your bill.

Optional

Choose one of the following:

Use the default subheadings.

Use the following subheadings:

Weather Insight Statement

The default weather insight statement varies depending on the state. These are the default headings by state:

Cooler: On average, this month was <temp> cooler than the same time last year.
Warmer: On average this month was <temp> hotter than the same time last year.
Neutral: Factors like heavy appliance use or household guests may have contributed.

Optional

Choose one of the following:

Display zero decimal places. (Default)

Display this many decimal places:

Fahrenheit or Celsius

The weather insight temperature can be measured in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius.

Default: Fahrenheit

Optional

Choose one of the following:

Display degrees in Fahrenheit. (Default)

Display degrees in Celsius.

User Experience Variations

This module can vary depending on how the temperature in the current period compares to the temperature in the comparison period from the previous year.

The weather insights calculation determines whether the average temperature was higher or lower between the current period and the comparison period. The calculator generates a weather insight that describes how weather might have impacted the bill's charges, and can result in the use of one of these states:

Cooler
Warmer
Neutral

The sections below describe how weather information is calculated to determine the module state.

Weather Data Collection

Weather information is collected for the following intervals:

Current billing period: An uncompleted bill interval. The bill interval end date can be shifted up to 2 days and 4 hours due to a weather service latency (4 hours).
Last year's billing period: 1 year shifted from the current billing period.
Current season period: Last 30 days interval.
Last year's season period: 1 year shifted from the current season period.

We classify each of the above periods into seasons: Heating, Cooling or Transition. The classification is made using average mean temperature.

Determine Whether Seasons are Comparable

Once the season classifications are calculated, we determine if the seasons are comparable. A comparable season is defined by two periods being either the same season or one period being defined as Transition.

To be comparable the following checks are made:

current billing period and current season period (for example both must be "Heating", or both must be "Cooling", or one could be "Transition")
current billing period and previous billing period
current season period and previous season period

If one or more of the checks return a negative result, the seasons are not considered comparable. In this case, the module will not render in the communication.

Identifying the Weather Insight States

If the seasons are determined to be comparable, then the weather insight states are determined by the season classification and temperature difference calculations listed here:

Warmer: If current billing period is classified as Cooling, the mean temperature difference between current bill period and previous bill period is positive, and the mean temperature difference is greater than 8˚F.