The analysis and study of gas consumption index of rural buildings and presenting corrective strategies (Case study: Shoqan, North Khorasan province)

In this study, due to the lack of gas consumption index for rural buildings, an attempt has been made for a better understanding of the rural gas consumption pattern by comparative analysis between measured consumptions and predicted values used for network design in one of the rural areas of North Khorasan province. Based on the results of this study, it was observed that using the urban buildings consumption index will cause a significant difference in predicting the consumption of rural buildings, which is about 47% and 52% in residential and religious buildings, respectively. This difference in office, medical and educational buildings, due to their much smaller dimensions compared to the corresponding urban buildings, is about 87%, 91%, and 67%, respectively. Also, the calculated difference between the predicted amount and the total hourly consumption in the study area was about 50%, which indicates a significant surplus potential ready to release in the rural sector. Finally, based on the measured data, relations to predict the maximum hourly heating consumption of rural buildings in terms of the minimum absolute ambient temperature and new consumption indexes for rural buildings were proposed.