[Bldg-sim] ASHRAE climate zones by ZIP code?

Chip Barnaby chipbarnaby at gmail.com
Fri Jun 5 05:45:23 PDT 2015


All,

As Scott points out, zip code translation to climate zone is essentially
impossible to do with complete accuracy.

A couple of additional points

1. Zip code definitions can change.  The USPS defines zip codes for its
   purposes and those do not include climate zone definitions.  I know
   this because at my former address, the zip code was modified.  Don't
   know how common this is, but it happens.

2. To my knowledge, the California climate zones are NOT defined in
   terms of zip codes.  There is a legal definition based on counties
   and/or jurisdictions.  The California Energy Commission staff created
   a zip code lookup for convenience.  I believe their lookup is not
   perfect, for all the same reasons.

--
Chip Barnaby
chipbarnaby at gmail.com
 
 
 
On Thu, Jun 4, 2015, at 04:58 PM, West, Scott P wrote:
> Dominique,


> I also undertook the same quest about a year and a half ago when I discovered (from speaking to some ASHRAE and DOE folks) that climate zones in the US are
 assigned by county.  ASHRAE Standard 169 sets climate zones based on historical weather patterns but they are assigned by county. 
> 


> 


> I came up with approximately 3,200 counties and 33,120 zip codes in the US (it depends on what US territories you’re counting).  Unfortunately there are many
 zip codes that straddle more than one county so it’s not a direct translation.  I counted 1,413 zip codes in the US that overlap counties with different climate zones (see attached pivot table).  So this makes looking up climate zone by zip code challenging
 if the project is located near a climate transition region.  


> 


> You may be aware, but the ASHRAE climate zones are changing a bit as of the publication of 169-2013.  I’m not aware of any published ASHRAE standards that have
 adopted the 2013 climate zones but the change will come in the next couple of years.  The climate zone changes did not make it into 90.1-2013 but my understanding is that they will by the time 2016 is published (I know there are SSPC 90.1 people on this list,
 has this reference been adopted yet?).  So the 169-2006 climate zone assignments are likely the ones that you’re familiar with.  I’ve attached both county assignment lists in case you’re interested. 
> 


> 


> Also, I’m not sure if you’re interested in California and Title 24, but California assigns specific state climate zones by zip code.  I’ve included these assignments
 in an attachment as well.  There are 1,702 counties in California according to the CEC I found.


> 


> Be aware when dealing with counties: if you want to turn these into lookups or pulldowns, the naming conventions (i.e. spelling and punctuation) between US
 federal census data and climate zone data are not entirely perfect and may require some cleaning up.  Things as simple as which letters are capitalized or whether compound names have a dash can case issues. 
> 


> 


> I hope this is helpful, good luck!


> 


> Scott P. West, P.E., LEED AP
> BD+C, BEAP, BEMP
> |
> *JACOBS*|
 Mechanical Engineer |
> Energy & Power Solutions |
> 817.222.8512 office
> |817.897.1882 cell
> |scott.west at jacobs.com |
> www.jacobs.com[1]|
> www.jacobs.com/energyportfolio


> 


> *From:* dom_michaud at yahoo.com [mailto:dom_michaud at yahoo.com]
> 
> *Sent:* Thursday, June 04, 2015 11:27 AM
> *To:* BldgSim Mailing List
> *Subject:* [Bldg-sim] ASHRAE climate zones by ZIP code?

> 


> Hello all,


> 


> I've conducted about an hour web search looking for a simple csv or Excel file that maps ASHRAE climate zones to ZIP Codes, without success. I'm wondering if someone has come
 across such a file? 


> 


> Thank you in advance for your help. 


> 


> Dominique Michaud, PE


> 


>  
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> Email had 5 attachments:


>  * ASHRAE 169-2006 County to Climate Zone.xlsx
>   6.2M (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
>  * ASHRAE 169-2013 - Table B-1 US Counties.xlsx
>   42k (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
>  * California Building Climate Zones - Zipcode List.xlsx
>   91k (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
>  * 2010 Census ZCTA Data Description.docx
>   21k (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document)
>  * explanation_zcta_county_rel_10.pdf
>   547k (application/pdf)
 


Links:

  1. http://www.jacobs.com/
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