Carol, how are you doing? Long time no contact.
I sent a reply bldgsim but I thought I would send this to you directly.
From your email:
"I agree that if you are trying to calibrate a model to actual
utility bills, you should use actual weather data. That is not
practical for eQuest as well as other programs so then the next best
thing is to check the TMY or weather file against the actual weather.
We have been creating TRY (actual weather data files) for DOE2.1e for
since 1995. It was harder before without Excel and add in
psychrometric functions.
Environment had a huge number of weather stations with hourly data -
some with full weather data and some with only a few data
channels. Some stations were daytime hours only. One had to request
a period of data and pay a setup fee. The setup fee was more than
the data fee so it paid to request a bunch of sites at the same
time. We were doing an ongoing study for BC Hydro and we created
hourly weather files for 21 sites around BC for a period of 5 years,
updating every quarter.
We have an old C-code processor that converts the EC data into an old
DOE2.1e format text format for conversion to a .WTH binary weather
file. The processor could use a number of different channels
depending on the weather site. The input file signalled what
channels were coming in the text file. The Hirsh processor can
convert .WTH files to .bin files.
Environment Canada now has hourly data available for much fewer
sites. Cut backs closed dozens of sites across the country. There
is a significant difference in weather between places like Revelstoke
and the closest site with TMY weather. With the availability of
stations in smaller places, one could aggregate a weather file that
captured the differences in temperature and humidity at least, then
create a DOE2.1e weather file that town.
The good thing to happen with Environment Canada is that the WEB site
makes hourly data available on line for a large number of stations
across the country. You can download a month at a time to a .csv
file. It takes 5 minutes to get a years worth of data required for a
DOE2 weather file. We now have a spreadsheet with the appropriate
psychometric functions that converts the EC data to TRY data. We
just save the data to a text file for the Hirsh weather
processor. Then add the file to the equest weather directory and
Bob's your uncle.
We use these TRY files for M&V projects.
Let me know if you would like any files for Toronto from over past 13
years. I have done some projects calibrating downtown office
buildings to help determine the cost effectiveness of switching to
the Enwave cooling system. I would be happy to give you one of
these Toronto files. Don't tell Curt .
You just need to help me with the Equest refrigeration version for a
cold storage warehouse - and a hockey arena ;-)
Seriously, I recall that you did model an arena at one point. It
would be helpful to get some guidance from you. I have a couple of
projects I am using the old Wizard for and it would be interesting to
compare with the Equest refrigeration version.
>> Christopher Jones, P.Eng.
