Just a quick update for those of you who have been following this discussion thread about Australian Weather data and WeatherTool.

John recently sent me a CSV data file for the city of Port Kembla, containing monthly weather data values. Unfortunately, this kind of data is not particularly useful, at least not by itself. WeatherTool deals exclusively with hourly weather data - the monthly summaries you can see in WeatherTool are derived from hourly data.

However, this monthly weather data can be useful when hourly data is not available for your specific geographic location. In this instance, you would use the available hourly data from the nearest weather station, and then moderate this data with the monthly data for the specific location. For instance, under the Monthly Data tab, you can enter the respective monthly values for the specific location, and then this will alter the hourly values in order to create the specified average value. This is known as synthesised data, because it has been derived through interpolation, rather than actual recorded values.

As it turns out, the vast majority of solar radiation data in Australia is synthesised data. The Bureau of Meteorology derive almost all of their solar radiation data from satellite recordings, rather than 'on the ground'. They then run this data through a whole bunch of algorithms to generate daily solar radiation values. Hence, they don't actually record hourly values in specific locations.

However, in 1978, an initiative by the National Energy Research Development and Demonstration Council (NERDDC) resulted in 'real' hourly solar radiation values being recorded for approximately 60 sites around Australia. Though even around 20 of these sites use synthesised data.

I also understand that recent solar radiation recordings by BOM are not as accurate as they should be, due to calibration issues between ground monitoring stations and the satellite derived data. More information regarding this can be found at the following links :

• http://www.bom.gov.au/sat/solradinfo.shtml
• http://www.bom.gov.au/reguser/by_prod/radiation/

I've been advised that the Bureau is currently looking into recording hourly values for solar radiation, but they're not quite there yet.

So while most of the weather data available from BOM can be used in WeatherTool, another source for hourly solar radiation data is required. I've found two companies that can supply this :

• ACADS-BSG : 18 High Street Glen Iris VIC 3146 (03) 9885 6586
• Energy Partners : Manuka Arcade Lvl 1/ Franklin St Manuka ACT 2603 (02) 6260 6173

I spoke to a person named Trevor at ACADS-BSG - the hourly solar radiation data they have is essentially the data collected by NERDDC, and can be supplied in a CSV format compatible with Ecotect. They also supply all of the weather data as supplied by BOM, so it's possible to purchase everything from them, instead of from two different sources.

I haven't spoken to anyone at Energy Partners, but I understand from a colleague that they were commissioned to provide all of the weather data used in the AccuRATE analysis engine. Thus, they should be able to supply data in a similar format to the climate zones used by AccuRATE.

Alternatively, it is possible to estimate your own hourly solar radiation values from the BOM daily totals. I found the following table in Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies (2nd Edition) by GZ Brown and Mark DeKay :

Being for temperate climates in the Southern Hemisphere. If you you break down the daily total values from BOM using these percentages, you could then enter this as hourly solar radiation data into WeatherTool. The not so good news is that you would have to do this manually, and you would also have to account for the calibration discrepancies that exist in the BOM data, as described above.

Regarding BOM data in general, it looks like they no longer use the LST format as listed in WeatherTool - instead, the data is supplied simply as a CSV or TXT file. However, Square One Research is working on an importer for Weather Tool that will allow you to automatically import BOM data, rather than having to do it manually as described in the wiki tutorial here.

I hope this helps to clarify some of the issues faced when trying to import Australian weather data into WeatherTool. If you still need additional help, I am happy to provide any assistance I can, as long you don't mind if any weather data files we create together can be uploaded to the SQU1 wiki and shared with other users.

Kind regards,

sid.

sid thoo architect
ABWA (No. 2142)