Hi everyone. Here goes my 1st post. EPW weather files, which you can download from official sites, etc., does anyone know what kind of data, ideally, goes into them? Example, do the last 5, 10, 20 years weather data averages go into them? Is there a predefined ideal minimum average? ...or, what ever data is each particular station has, that´s what goes into them? (read, no minimum standards).
...I understand that anyone can actually create such a file. So are the files from "official" sites more accurate? Thanks in advance for your comments!
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What type of climatic data goes into EPWs weather files?
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Weather File Data
Hello Andy,
Typically, a formal weather file will be averaged over at least 30 years. hence, in the US, the TMYs used to be from 1961 to 1991, now they are averaged from 1971 to 2001 and so forth.
With that said, quite a bit of weather file you can find out there will have whatever they have recorded, even if it is only for a year. For some countries with little protocol, it can be difficult to even guess.
Best,
Olivier
Weather data on the EnergyPlus site
You can find out about the data sources on the EnergyPlus site:
http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/weatherdata_sources.html
This will describe the data sets that went into configuring the epw formatted files.
Anyone, of course, can make a file in epw format but how that will be useful for design or energy analysis is up to the user.
Linda
EnergyPlus Development Team
how I can make a file in
how I can make a file in epw?
thanks
The weather converter tool
The weather converter tool that comes with EnergyPlus has the ability to read .wea files and save them as epw files.
Otherwise, you should read the Auxiliary Programs document (comes with EnergyPlus or on website) and you can use most any set of data to create an epw file.
Linda
EnergyPlus Development Team