Method to abbreviate hourly climate data for computer simulation of annual energy use in buildings. Final report

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:5498679

Arens, E; Flynn, L; Nall, D

A building's future energy performance is commonly estimated by simulating its thermal behavior over a typical year representative of the most statistically probable future climate. A technique is presented to abbreviate the hourly climate data used in such analysis. It is incorporated in a computer program that selects from each month of a full year's climate record a shorter segment that represents the month. The technique's empirical basis is reported, followed by the results of various tests of its effectiveness at representing full-length data. The results suggest how far one can actually abbreviate climate data before the thermal lag of the building begins to distort predicted energy. The paper finally discusses the potential for using the technique for other applications, such as creating typical years and synthesizing hourly data for sites for which there is only summarized data.

• Research Organization: National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5498679
• Report Number(s): PB-85-197465
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320100* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Buildings
BUILDINGS
CLIMATES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DATA
DATA ANALYSIS
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
INFORMATION
SIMULATION
THERMAL COMFORT