Visualising statistics on energy performance of buildings

This blog post introduces:

• Some new experimental statistics from DCLG on energy performance of buildings, and
• My demonstration application to interrogate and visualise a sample of the 5-star LinkedData outputs we have just released via OpenDataCommunities.

The statistics

As indicated in the press release, the statistics comprise:

Information about certificates on the energy efficiency of domestic and non-domestic buildings in England and Wales that have been constructed, sold, or let since 2008, and of larger public authority buildings since 2008. These statistics do not cover the entire building stock across England and Wales.

The published spreadsheets contain various slices of data: including energy performance of different types of property, of new build properties, and fuel cost.

Unlocking the spreadsheets

As I’ve blogged before, spreadsheets are great, particularly for statistics, but can be a barrier to innovative data re-use.  For instance, imagine the possibilities around linking energy performance statistics to data such as Land Registry’s information on sales of new build property, or local demography from the 2001 Census, or facts and figures on deprivation in local areas.

To help encourage these types of uses, we have published a small selection of the Energy Performance via DCLG’s Open Data Communities service as query-able LinkedData:

• Certificates Lodged on Register – By Energy Efficiency Rating
• Certificates Lodged on Register – By Environmental Impact Rating
• Certificates Lodged on Register – By Floor Area

Each dataset provides summary statistics for individual Local Authorities, in each Year/Quarter between 2008 and 2013. Partial figures for Q1 and Q2 2014 are also included. The outputs are ‘Experimental’ official statistics because they are still subject to evaluation and testing.   We are keen to release more.  Which sets would you like to see next, and how would you use them?

Demonstrating the art of the possible

For me, the real point of providing LinkedData is to enable more efficient, innovative new uses and ultimately new data-driven knowledge and insights.

To demonstrate the art of the possible here, I’ve developed – in just over one day, using only open-source technologies! – a new application utilising one of the three OpenDataCommunities datasets.   You’ll find the application here – http://dclgapps.communities.gov.uk/epc/epcdemo.html.

In brief, the app allows you to view numbers of Domestic Energy Performance Certificates Lodged on Register, By Energy Efficiency Rating for a Local Authority and its immediate neighbours.

As illustrated in the screen-shot below,  you can:

• Select a local authority from the light-blue drop down list;
• view data for individual quarters using the slider just above the map.

 

The map comprises boundaries for the selected council and its geographic neighbours, with pie charts showing the distribution of certificates by energy rating.   Pies are sized proportionately, according to the largest number of certificates within the selected local authorities and quarter.  So, in the above example Tendring Council has the largest number of certificates overall in quarter 2, 2014, and pie charts for other districts are sized relative to that.

Clicking on the pie charts will display a popup window.    This includes an area chart showing the distribution of certificates by energy efficiency rating within the selected local authority, across the entire time period.

 

In conclusion…

I hope that you agree that the app provides useful food for thought on the potential for re-using energy performance statistics alongside related third-party sources.   It would be great to see others using our data to create new tools and insights.   Come on you lovely creative people.  Show us what you can do!

Thanks for reading.

 

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