Climate data and its analysis
| Aim | To appreciate the range of available climate collections and understand ESP-r's climate analysis capabilities. |
| Learning outcome | Ability to select appropriate climate boundary conditions and adapt standard climate data to local needs. |
Task |
Instructions
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1. List the contents of the ESP-r climate directory (/usr/esru/esp-r/climate). |
ESP-r comes pre-loaded with several annual climate files for locations in the UK and elsewhere. Additional international climate collections are available from http://www.eren.doe.gov/buildings/tools_directory/software/iwec.html. |
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2. Select one of the available climate files. |
After making a selection, invoke the climate analysis module and explore its facilities for interrogating, graphing, rating and editing file contents. |
| 3. Explore ways of creating new and modifying existing climate data. |
Export the data in your selected climate file to another file written in ASCII format. Use an editor to change this ASCII file and then import the data to a new climate file (from where it can be analysed as in step 2). Note that you cannot edit a standard file (i.e. one that is located in /usr/esru/esp-r/climate) because you do not have write permission. To edit such a file, you must first copy it to your director (i.e. own it). Both the Project Manager Database management facility and the climate module provide options for creating new climate files. The climate module also has a facility to edit the data. |
| 4. Compare the Degree-Day and Climate Severity indices. | These indices may be accessed through the Synoptic analysis option. Both are measures of the climate severity and may be used to select climate collections that, in whole or part, offer boundary conditions of the required severity (severe hot or cold design condition, average winter, cold year etc). |
| 5. Search for typical climate patterns. | For quick assessments is is possible to use a typical climate pattern to explore building performace for a season. Select a climate set from the list and use the Synoptic analysis->find typical weeks option. You will be asked for a heating base temperature and a cooling base temperature (these are based on the outside temperature where heating and/or cooling start to be required). The first report is seasonal information. The second report is based on scanning each week to find which is closest to the seasonal data. |