Issue Report: ResStock 2025 Release 1 Column Applicability

Summary of Issue

A column is only filled out correctly for one upgrade, when it should be filled out for all upgrades. There are three instances of this. The missing information can be determined through other columns in the dataset.

The first instance is upgrade.heating_fuel which only has two potential values, “Natural Gas” and “None”. That means for all heat pump upgrades, even if a heat pump gets applied, the upgrade.heating_fuel is marked as “None”. The second instance is for upgrade.hvac_heating_type_and_fuel which only has two values of “Natural Gas Fuel Furnace” and “None”. These columns are only correct for the first upgrade, Natural Gas furnace, and are incorrectly filled out for the other upgrades in this dataset.

The third instance is upgrade.hvac_detailed_performance_data which only has two potential values, “Cold Climate Heat Pump Ducted” and “None”. These values are only correct for upgrade 4, Cold Climate Ducted Air Source Heat Pump, and are incorrectly filled out for the other upgrades in this dataset.

Status

Impacts ResStock 2025 Release 1 (ResStock 2025.1) AMY2018 and AMY2012 datasets only. Preliminary investigation complete. Detailed investigation complete.

Details

Two columns, upgrade.heating_fuel and upgrade.hvac_heating_type_and_fuel were only correctly applied in upgrade 01, Natural Gas Furnace 95% AFUE. One additional column, upgrade.hvac_detailed_performance_data, was only correctly applied in upgrade 04, Cold Climate Air-Source Heat Pump.

upgrade.heating_fuel, as noted in the enumeration dictionary for this release, only has two potential values: “Natural Gas” and “None”. That means for other upgrades that are electric, such as the single-speed geothermal heat pump, their upgrade.heating_fuel is marked as “None” even though the final upgraded heating fuel is in fact electric for example. Similarly, the upgrade.hvac_heating_type_and_fuel only has two potential values, “Natural Gas Fuel Furnace” and “None”. Even if a model gets a change of heating system that is not a natural gas furnace, the column will show up as “None”. To fix this, infer the type of upgrade from other columns and ResStock documentation. For example, upgrade 02 in this dataset is the Propane Furnace 95% AFUE or Fuel Oil Furnace 88% AFUE. Looking at the applicability column and the in.heating_fuel column in the annual results files gives the needed information. Also check the dataset readme for a summary of applicability logic, or the upgrade specific documentation if it is released. For example, say the applicability column is marked as “True” and the in.heating_fuel column value is “Propane”, then a user can infer the upgrade was applied and actual value of the upgrade.heating_fuel should be “Propane”, and the upgrade.hvac_heating_type_and_fuel should be “Propane Fuel Furnace”. From the readme, the user knows that less efficient propane systems are upgraded only with the propane system, they are not upgraded with the fuel oil system. This is one example of how the actual value can be inferred.

upgrade.hvac_detailed_performance_data, also noted in the enumeration dictionary for this release, only has two potential values, “Cold Climate Heat Pump Ducted” and “None”. To find out the efficiency of other hvac systems in different upgrades, check out the upgrade.hvac_heating_efficiency column or the upgrade.hvac_cooling_efficiency column which will have the hvac system type and efficiency value.