RASS

RASS is the acronym for Residential Appliance Saturation Study and is a research product that provides detailed saturation analysis of appliances across utility service territories throughout the state of California.

Subject: Who is included in the RASS sample?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

The sample includes 21,920 households throughout the state of California that include both individually metered and master metered dwellings. It includes single family homes, town houses, multi-family units, mobile homes, and other dwelling types. The sample was then weighted to the population represented by the sponsoring utilities. 180 of the 21,920 households have on-site metering data for whole house and central air conditioning usage.

Subject: Who are the sponsors of the project?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

The project is administered by the California Energy Commission and sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

Subject: When was the study conducted?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

The study was initiated in late 2002 and implemented throughout 2003. The saturation analysis is conducted using the 2002 billing data of the survey sample. The load shape analysis is conducted using 2003-2004 metering data of the on-site sample. Kema-Xenergy performed the on-site metering data collection and Itron performed the loadshape analysis. This is the first time a residential appliance saturation study has been performed by large Investor Owned Untitiles (IOUs) as a team.

Subject: What is the on-site sample?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

The onsite metering sample is designed to over-sample air conditioning use, with meters gathering both whole-house and central air conditioning usage at each dwelling. 180 of the 21,920 households have on-site metering data gathering whole house and central air conditioning usage.

Subject: What is a cleaned variable?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

Cleaned variables are used in the creation of the RASS Final Report and follow a set of condition statements that account for contradicting answers in the response survey. Cleaned variables represent a more accurate way of assessing the household and dwelling, and should be used in such a case. A non-cleaned variable is used to find a raw survey response for a particular question. Further details are described in Volume 1 Section 4 of the report.

Subject: What does the * (asterisks) mean?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

The asterisks occur when the response sample size is less than 25. No solid conclusion can be drawn from the data gathered.

Subject: What is the difference between gas and bottled gas?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

Gas refers to natural gas, where the sample has natural gas service from a utility. Bottled gas refers to propane tanks. Where it is not explicitly stated as bottled gas, gas always refers to natural gas.

Subject: What is banner data?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

Each banner contains answers to all of the questions on the survey (as well as some final plugged/cleaned values as noted in the survey documentation). Banners consist of three types for the population at large and four for each utility as follows: ·Banner 1 is by Education, Primary Language, Ethnicity, and Income. ·Banner 2 is by Square Footage, Type of Occupant, Primary Heating Fuel, Type of Air Conditioning, and Water Heating Fuel. ·Banner 3 is by Dwelling Type, Ownership, House Occupancy (full or part-time), Dwelling Age, and Gas Utility. ·Climate banners are by a combination of CEC Forecast climate zone and a condensed dwelling type (Single Family, Multi Family, and Mobile Home).

Subject: Why are there different results between the RASS website and banner data?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

Occasionally the RASS website and banner data will have differing results when the total population for a particular banner section is not 10,347 which is 10.347 million customers (i.e. heating and cooling types). There are some master metered cases where the RASS website captured system type even though the tenant did not pay for heating or cooling. The property owners were pre-phoned and the section was filled out in advance. The banner data excludes those who do not pay for heating or cooling.

Subject: What are UECs and how are they calculated?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

UEC is unit energy consumption and represents the energy consumed by an end-use product in kwh. The electric UEC represents 25 end-uses and the gas UEC represents 8 end-uses. The UECs are calculated using a conditional demand analysis model and normalized with 2002 billing data. Only individually metered accounts are used for UEC analysis. Further details are described in Volume 2 Section 2 of the report.

Subject: What is the difference between weighted and non-weighted?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

Weighted represents the sample multiplied by a weight value for a utility area to account for the entire population of that area. Non-weighted represents the actual sample response. The weighted total population is 10,347,807 and the non-weighted population is 21,920.

Subject: How come the browser window does not update?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

In certain Internet settings, the browser window will not update automatically. You must close the report window, and rerun a report to get a new report.

Subject: Why are some responses skipped when listing the number of a variable?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

In the rows, some of the responses are skipped because there is no data that falls into those categories. For example, “Number of Residents 0-18” skips “11 Respondents” because no household includes 11 residents between the ages of 0-18.

Subject: How come nothing shows up when I run a report?
Author: cpalmgren
Date: 3/22/2012

Microsoft Internet Explorer is recommended. Computers with pop-up blockers enabled will not be able to run reports. You must enable the pop-up blocker to accept pop-ups from the Kema website. If you have a google pop-up blocker, you should run a query and when the finger pops up, drap the finger to the tool bar. Then a menu should appear to allow you to accept pop ups for the Kema website.

Subject: How do I enable pop-ups for the Kema website only?
Author: cyu
Date: 7/6/2004

If you have a google pop-up blocker, you should run a query and when the finger pops up, drap the finger to the tool bar. Then a menu should appear to allow you to accept pop-ups for the Kema website.