I finally got around to looking at the nrel.gov link referenced in the post
below and found that it's not actual weather data, but it's TMY3 data.
Does anyone know where to find, for example, the actual, hour-by-hour,
just-the-way-it-really-happened, weather data for 2003 in Grand Rapids, MI?
Thanks!
James V. Dirkes II, P.E., LEED AP
James,
Try the EnergyPlus weather service. It's free and convenient but there are
sometimes data gaps:
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/cfm/weatherdata/weather_re
quest.cfm
I'm not sure if they have weather back to 2003 though. You can also try a
paid service such as the National Climatic Data Center or the Weather Bank
for high quality, validated weather data.
Good luck,
Hwakong
The source data for the TMY3 (1991-2005) is available from the National
Climatic Data Center:
http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=C0
0668-TAP-A0001
Scroll down--you can download individual locations--you don't have to
buy the entire data set ($500).
Historical weather data is available for free at this link:
http://www.wunderground.com/history/
I do not know, however, how hard it would be to import this data into
any of the programs we are using. It looks like it would be easy enough
to create design days from this data.
William Bishop, EIT, LEED(r) AP