RE: [EnergyPlus_Support] Custom climate file rendering simulations corrupt

Joe,

The challenge is to get graphing tools to display the right day of the week when using non-consecutive days. As you say TMY2/TMY3 are made up of months from different years which is of course perfect for generating representative simulation results but it does present a challenge for graphing UI tools!

In early versions of DB changing the year in the weather file was the only way we could find at the time to get the days of the week to reliably line up with graph legends.

I think that our latest Results Viewer application is able to print correct day of the week for unmodified TMY files but will check.

Andy

From: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 24 October 2016 23:38
To: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [EnergyPlus_Support] Custom climate file rendering simulations corrupt

Andy,

Thanks for the explanation. I figured there must be a reason for setting the year to 2002, which was not explained in the thread.

However, I'm puzzled why you're doing this to the weather file, instead of having EnergyPlus or DesignBuilder do it internally if "typical year" weather data are always interpreted as 2002 anyway. One of the things I like about the TMY2/TMY3 format is that it contains the actual years from which the monthly data were extracted, which is indispensible if one ever wants to verify or debug data that appear suspicious or questionable. Otherwise, a "typical year" weather file is just some hypothetical data floating in space. What I did in 2012 to correct the liquid precipitation data in the TMY3s was only possible because I had the actual year and time of the records.

I note that you call this a "workaround", so maybe you are planning to add that capability to either DB or EP, which I would highly recommend.

Joe

Joe Huang

White Box Technologies, Inc.

346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 205A

Moraga CA 94556

yjhuang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com for simulation-ready weather data

(o) (925)388-0265

(c) (510)928-2683

"building energy simulations at your fingertips"

On 10/21/2016 3:16 AM, Andy Tindale andy.tindale@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [EnergyPlus_Support] wrote:

To expand a little on previous answers, from our Knowledgebase article on the subject:
All of the data supplied by DesignBuilder comes from the EnergyPlus hourly weather database and is mostly made up of real weather data compiled to create representative years. Each file typically has months from more than one year. DesignBuilder have set the year for every record to 2002 to ensure that daily, hourly and sub-hourly data generated by EnergyPlus is correctly synchronised with the DesignBuilder graphics display.
If you are using your own weather data where the year is not set to 2002 in the weather file, you will probably find that DesignBuilder reports the day of week incorrectly on hourly and daily graphs of data. However this is just a reporting issue and the simulation results will be correct, it's just that the day of the week on the graph will not be labelled correctly (e.g. Monday might be labelled as Sunday etc). The workaround for this is to change the year data for each record in the weather file to 2002 using the 'Hourly weather data' dialog which is accessed from the Tools menu.
I hope this clears it up.

Andy

Andy Tindale
Managing Director I Tel: +44 (0)1453 755500 I andy.tindale@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

DesignBuilder Software Ltd, 1st Floor, Clarendon Court, 54-56 London Rd, Stroud, GL5 2AD
www.designbuilder.co.uk

From: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: vendredi 21 octobre 2016 04:10
To: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [EnergyPlus_Support] Custom climate file rendering simulations corrupt
Dear Joe,

As Jim Dirkes pointed out, DB accepts all epw weather files. But in order to run the design summer or design winter weeks, it needs to convert all the epw hours to the year 2002 for which it has a converter.

Best,
Roshmi
On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 5:40 AM, Jim Dirkes jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [EnergyPlus_Support] <EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Joe,
DB can use any .epw-formatted weather file
On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 4:10 PM, Joe Huang YJHuang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [EnergyPlus_Support] <EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Am I reading this correctly that DB only accepts weather files with the year as 2002? If that's true, what's the reason? Does that mean DB is never used for simulations with actual historical weather data?
Joe
Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 205A
Moraga CA 94556
yjhuang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com for simulation-ready weather data
(o) (925)388-0265
(c) (510)928-2683
"building energy simulations at your fingertips"
On 10/20/2016 8:24 AM, Roshmi Sen s.roshmi@xxxxxxxxx [EnergyPlus_Support] wrote:

Dear Linda,

Thank you very much for the help. Yes, they have a converter that converts all the years to 2002. I will reach out to you if I need further help.

Roshmi

On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 8:21 PM, katdra83@xxxxxxxx [EnergyPlus_Support] <EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You can have both installed. No problem at all. When exporting from DB to e+ just check the version of the final file. You might need to update the e+ file to a later version if your DB version is a bit old.
--
James V Dirkes II, PE, BEMP, LEED AP
CEO/President
The Building Performance Team Inc.
1631 Acacia Dr, GR, Mi 49504

Direct: 616.450.8653
jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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