[EnergyPlus_Support] Relative Contribution of Environmental Fields in EnergyPlus?

Hi everyone,

My name is Aaron and I just joined the group. I am new to Rhino/Grasshopper/Ladybug/Honeybee/OpenStudio/EnergyPlus. Any help/advice the experts here could provide would be greatly appreciated.

For some context, I am working on a project looking at the effect of climate change and building design in a factory with the following steps/goals:

Rather than use TMY files, we will monitor the outside environment for at least 12 months
Simultaneously monitor the inside environment for at least 12 months
In the meantime build a model of the factory in Rhino, Grasshopper (LB + HB[Eplus])
Use the outdoor/indoor measurements to validate the accuracy of the model
Apply climate change weather models to see the conditions workers will face in the future and what methods (besides air conditioning) can be applied to cool the factory when humidity/temperatures rise (e.g. white roof, green roof).

I am trying to better understanding of the underlying assumptions of EnergyPlus and EPW files it requires.

Specifically to what extent does missing data in certain fields in EPW files influence the EnergyPlus outputs.

We have a weather station of our own, indoor weather stations/sensors for inside the factory and access to 3h data from a local meteorological agency for some variables we cannot collect ourselves.

I have provided a table is below to help better understand the variables we have and those we don’t.

Essentially my question is:

If we cannot measure Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity and Opaque Sky Cover at all and allocate the EPW file as missing data will this significantly influence the model of the building? As in the thermal environment of the workers (temperature and relative humidity).
Further if we do the same for Total Sky cover where data is missing (as we can get this data but only at 3h intervals) will this significantly influence our model?
I have run two example TMY EPW files I put through a basic GH+HB model. One had missing data for these variables, one had the original TMY data values. My output for hourly zone indoor temperature and humidity over the year did not differ, but I wasn’t sure if this is correct or not?
Is there any resource(s) that outlines the relative contribution each field plays within the black box that is EnergyPlus? This is important to know as many meteorological agencies and climate models do not provide/measure all the environmental fields EnergyPlus uses.

Variable	Variables used in E+ from EPW file	Our Weather Station (outdoors)	Our Sensors (indoors)	Local City Weather Station
Dry Bulb Temperature {C}	X	X	X
Dew Point Temperature {C}	X	X	X
Relative Humidity {%}	X	X	X
Atmospheric Pressure {Pa}	X		X	X*
Horizontal Infrared Radiation Intensity from Sky {Wh/m2}	X
Direct Normal Radiation {Wh/m2}	X	X
Diffuse Horizontal Radiation {Wh/m2}	X	X
Wind Direction {deg}	X	X	X
Wind Speed {m/s}	X	X	X
Total Sky Cover {.1}	X			X*
Opaque Sky Cover {.1}	X
Liquid Precipitation Depth {mm}	X			X*

* = DATA SAMPLE RATE IN 3h (not the 1h preferred)

Kind regards,

Aaron Bach

Research Fellow

National Climate Change Adaption Research Facility (NCCARF)

Griffith University

T: +617 5552 7229 | M: +61 423 777 210 | E: a.bach@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Office 4.24, Building G39 (Science, Engineering and Architecture)

Engineering Drive, Southport, QLD (4215)