[Bldg-sim] Rain Forest Weather Data

[Joe Huang]

I think you're much better off getting the weather data for the nearest location in Puerto 
Rico, than some generic site with similar weather (how would you know that it's similar, 
anyway?).  There are 6-7 weather stations in Puerto Rico in the TMY3 weather data set, of 
which the closest to El Yunque is Roosevelt-Roads 16 km to the east, but on the coast.  
The other alternative is a station called Palmer 16 kilometer to the north, for which 
Weather Underground seems to have data (search www.wunderground.com).  However, converting 
Weather Underground weather data to usable files for EnergyPlus simulations would take 
some effort.  I've done that twice, and it could easily take a day or two of work.

I assume that you're concerned with the microclimate differences between the rain forest 
and the nearby locations.  I think you can only get those if there is a weather station 
within the rain forest.  I frankly don't think you can reliably get such the microclimatic 
differences using modeled weather data, except for possibly adiabatic expansion 
(temperature depression) due to differences in elevation. Having said that, it's also easy 
to do the same adiabatic correction using measured data. Unless you find hourly measured 
data from the rain forest itself, my recommendation would be to use Roosevelt-Roads TMY3 
and correct for the elevation if you're so interested.

Joe

Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 108D
Moraga CA 94556
yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com for simulation-ready weather data
(o) (925)388-0265
(c) (510)928-2683
"building energy simulations at your fingertips"


On 11/20/2013 8:33 AM, Liuwei Zhao wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> We are a group of students working on an academic project, regarding energy simulation 
> for design, and the site is in EI Yunque national forest in Puerto Rico. Since it is a 
> rain forest the weather data from San Juan is of no use. Does anyone happen to have the 
> weather data from the site, or from a site with a similar weather?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Liuwei, Irene, and Blanca
> MDeS, Energy and Environment students
> Harvard's Graduate School of Design
>
> -- 
> ----------------------------------------
> Liuwei Zhao
> MDesS Energy & Environment Candidate 2015
> Graduate School of Design| Harvard University
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Bldg-sim mailing list
> http://lists.onebuilding.org/listinfo.cgi/bldg-sim-onebuilding.org
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list send  a blank message to BLDG-SIM-UNSUBSCRIBE at ONEBUILDING.ORG
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.onebuilding.org/pipermail/bldg-sim-onebuilding.org/attachments/20131120/ace3edaa/attachment-0002.htm>