(I've heard there's an Open Studio bulletin board, but since I don't know where it is, and maybe other EnergyPlus-related software might be doing the same thing, I thought I would just post this comment here)
I've just been told by a client that Open Studio checks the
DayofWeek for the start date on the EPW to the DayofWeek
calculated from the date itself to determine whether the weather
file is of a historical year or a "typical year" (see here)
and thus would I mind changing that parameter on my
EPWs which right now always sets the start date as a Sunday (I
think it's hardwired in the WeatherConverter since I don't see
anything in the DEF that allows that to be changed).
I find this request more than a little bizarre, because (1)
whether a file is run as a "real year"or a "typical year" is a
simulation option and NOT a condition of the weather file! (2)
even if we accept this logic of comparing the start date
DayofWeek to what it is actually to tell whether the file is a
historical file or a "typical year" file, this seems like a very
convoluted and error-prone way since someone (me ?) would have
to calculate or look up on the Web the actual day of week for
Jan 1 of that weather file, put that into the EPW, just so
EnergyPlus will know "aha, this is a historical year weather
file!".
This step is also completely unnecessary because EnergyPlus (as
well as any other decent simulation program) has a Julian
Calendar in its code to determine the day of week for any day,
so why do we have to input that manually once again just to
"prove" that this is a historical year run?
Let's see how another program (DOE-2) addresses this problem,
which I never thought was a problem until now... In DOE-2, one
enters the RUN-PERIOD is its entirety, i.e., Jan 1, 1999
through Dec. 31, 1999. If it's a "typical year" weather file
that you want to start on a Sunday, then you pick a year where
that happens - problem solved, no need to modify the weather
file, of all things.
-- 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"
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Posted by: Joe Huang <yjhuang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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