[Bldg-sim] Weather Files

[Chuck Khuen]

Actually there may be an even better way.  We just announced at last week’s American Meteorological Society conference a new system that can provide EnergyPlus (EPW) files in any of over 600,000 locations worldwide.  We have essentially placed a virtual weather station every 35-km across the globe.  Each able to produce gap-free hourly weather for over 30 years and full TMY energy+ files on demand.  We have been working on this a long time and it is now available.  We do not interpolate or extrapolate but use the new high resolution NOAA/NCEP/CFSR and the NASA/MERRA data sets as our base.  In tests where we placed a virtual stations right next to certified met stations, the outputs were essentially the same.

If you are looking for energy+ data where you could not get it before, let me know.  The people who have tried it from all over the world have been very happy with the data.

Best,
Chuck

_____________________
Chuck Khuen
Principal
Weather Analytics Inc.
www.weatheranalytics.com
781-856-5383

From: Arpan Bakshi 
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 10:21 AM
To: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org 
Subject: [Bldg-sim] Weather Files

Recently seen a number of weather file requests for hard to obtain locations.  
The cross-post below from the EnergyPlus list serv will be of use. 
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The EnergyPlus team can provide weather files created using Meteonorm. These are posted on the EnergyPlus YahooGroup under Files > Meteonorm_Weather_Files.

Locations are listed alphabetically by country. More than 280 locations are currently available--look there first before asking for a new weather file.
Link to the file: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/EnergyPlus_Support/files/Meteonorm_Weather_Files/Meteonorm_Weather_File_Inventory.xlsx

Information on selecting weather data is described in this paper: 
Drury B. Crawley. 1998. "Which Weather Data Should You Use for Energy Simulations of Commercial Buildings?" in ASHRAE Transactions, pp. 498-515, Vol. 104, Pt. 2. Atlanta: ASHRAE. (PDF 197 KB) 

PDF: http://energyplus.gov/pdfs/bibliography/whichweatherdatashouldyouuseforenergysimulations.pdf

Requesting Meteonorm Weather Data for Your Location. Send the information either to this group or to the helpdesk (mailto:energyplus-support%40gard.com)

You will need to supply:

Name of Location (including country)
Latitude (N+/S-)(decimal format preferred)
Longitude (E+/W-)(decimal format preferred)
Time Zone (+/- GMT)
Elevation (meters)

For convenience, you can convert lat/long in degrees minutes seconds to the decimal format by visiting this web link:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html

And you should be aware of Meteonorm limitations:

Meteonorm extrapolates hourly data from statistical data for a 
location. Where statistical data aren't available, Meteonorm interpolates 
from other nearby sites. Generally a statistical approach is a last resort--
weather files generated from statistics will not demonstrate the normal
hour-to-hour and day-to-day variability seen in measured data.

Each .ZIP includes a .STAT (EnergyPlus weather data statistics), .EPW 
(EnergyPlus weather file), and .INFO (Information about the source data and 
limitations from Meteonorm). 

IN ALL CASES, YOU SHOULD REVIEW THE .STAT FILE FOR THE LOCATION BEFORE USING 
ANY OF THESE FILES TO ENSURE THAT IT REPRESENTS THE CLIMATE OF THE LOCATION AS 
YOU UNDERSTAND IT. IN MANY CASES, A NEARBY LOCATION WITH MEASURED DATA MAY BE 
MORE APPROPRIATE THAN ONE DERIVED FROM STATISTICS. 

YOU USE THESE FILES ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

As always, if you know of sources of weather data that we might be able to 
share with the EnergyPlus community, please contact us. 

EnergyPlus Development Team


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