Re: Cost of climate file

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There are two IWEC2 weather file for Zurich
(CHE_ZUERICH-METEOSCHWEI_066600_IW2 and CHE_ZURICH-KLOTEN_066700_IW2).

IWEC2 (International Weather for Energy Calculations) weather files were
developed in a 4-year ASHRAE project utilizing actual weather reports
from thousands of stations throughout the world going back 25 years, and
covers locations outside of the United States and Canada. The entire set
of 3,012 IWEC2 weather files is available on a DVD from ASHRAE (see link
here )
Individual IWEC2 weather files are available online from White
BoxTechnologies, Inc. in various formats (BINM for DOE-2, EPW for
EnergyPlus, etc.), as well as country sets or even the entire IWEC2
collection. For a complete list of all IWEC2 stations, see here
. For a map
view of the IWEC2 stations in Google Maps, see here

Joe

Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 205A
Moraga CA 94556
yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com for simulation-ready weather data
http://www.whiteboxtechnologies.com
(o) (925)388-0265
(c) (510)928-2683
"building energy simulations at your fingertips"

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As someone with zero financial interests in any of the mentioned weather service companies, and as a consumer who has used these services (and also practiced a fair bit of composing/vetting my own weather files from raw data):

I think it speaks volumes and is worth highlighting that one of the owners of these service companies seems to contribute to/answer 99% of the questions posed about weather data sources and how to manipulate them, both this in forum and elsewhere.

Thanks Joe, for your pro bono services to our community, as well as the paid ones!

I?m also comfortable recommending WBT?s services to new and experienced simulators alike.

I should also insert Weather Analytics (a service I used to frequently recommend) shifted into new management/markets in the last year or so, and I don?t believe they service the ?building energy simulation sector? any more in the way they used to. If anyone has experience to the contrary and has been able to do business with them in recent months I?d be keen to hear about it!

~Nick

[cid:image001.png at 01D23BEA.9ED8CC80]
Nick Caton, P.E., BEMP
Senior Energy Engineer
Energy and Sustainability Services
Schneider Electric

D 913.564.6361
M 785.410.3317
E nicholas.caton at schneider-electric.com
F 913.564.6380

15200 Santa Fe Trail Drive
Suite 204
Lenexa, KS 66219
United States

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I'll second that strong endorsement of Joe Huang's good works on this forum and elsewhere.

Thanks Joe!

Robert P. Wichert P.Eng.
LEED AP BD&C
HERS I & HERS II
CEPE & CEA RES & NON-RES
+1 916 966 9060
FAX +1 916 966 9068

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Hi Nick,

Weather analytics do still provide weather files for the industry and Sefaira uses their epw files for our EnergyPlus analysis where other information is not available.

That said I echo your sentiments that Joe is great at responding to questions on this forum and it's greatly appreciated by the industry.

Best,

Andrew

--
Andrew Corney
Product Director
Sefaira - Sustainability. Performance. Design.
Mobile: +44 (0)7887 059 722
Skype: andrew.corney.sefaira

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If I understood it correctly from one of my clients, Weather Analytics may
be using a subscription model for their weather files. This would likely
mean that you must be a high volume weather file user in order to make it
economical.

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I have never ?messed? with wrestling raw weather data to eQuest .bin. Over the past 20 years I either got/get TMY data from DOE2/NREL or buy AMY for my analysis.

I had a conversation with Weather Analytics (previously my go to for AMY weather data) a few months ago and they confirmed Nick?s statement and recommended White Box Tech. My experience with WBT is good so far. I too thank Joe for his service to the community at large.

Melissa Crowe

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It seems like this topic comes up on here nearly every week.

There are many sources of weather/climate data. Some free, some not. Some are very questionable in their accuracy, others are not.

As a very wise man once said, ?Just because you can get something for free on the internet doesn?t mean it?s worth it?.

Can we create a mailing list rule that any time this topic comes up the server just automatically replies with a series of links about where you can get weather data? I?d be happy to work with everyone on this list to compile the links and put together the requisite disclaimers about knowing where the data comes from and ensuring you?ve analysed it to ensure its validity prior to using it.

In other words, haven?t we reached the point where weather/climate data ought to be a ?sticky? at the top of the mailing list?

As far as sources go, IES have compiled (an incomplete) listing of both free and for-purchase sources of weather data. For those interested, here it is: http://www.iesve.com/support/weatherfiles

Kind regards,

Nathan

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Nathan Kegel
Vice President IES Midwest

O:

763.276.9981

M:

415.420.9314

http://www.iesve.com

Integrated Environmental Solutions Limited. Registered in Scotland No. SC151456
Registered Office - Helix Building, West Of Scotland Science Park, Glasgow G20 0SP

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Funny you should suggest a ?sticky? concerning weather for the onebuilding lists?

I think Dru C./Linda L./Jason/others(?) secretly posted something along these lines at the onebuilding.org domain? but if they announced it I must have missed it! I stumbled into this effort only recently via google and tagged it to check out later: http://climate.onebuilding.org

Anybody responsible want to chime in and informally introduce, since we?re on-topic =)?

Regarding something equivalent to ?stickies? for a mailing list format forum? This has come up before, but implementation/execution is the real question ? a system that would self-drive/build for curating & posting mailing list content (on a voluntary basis at least) hasn?t really come along yet? Does anyone remember the onebuilding wiki effort/concept? A tricky piece to the puzzle is that unlike BBS or stackexchange formats, where you can post-edit a ?completed? contribution/answer in a static format, some of the best content spawned from a mailing list is in the format of a call & response discussion, usually involving 2+ people in a group and not necessarily in consecutive order, and those discussion threads often fork in multiple useful/informative directions? as may be happening right there with my climate.onebuilding.org derailment for your query, which was in turn launched from a separate but related question concerning a specific problem/scenario! It can be hard to compile a whole topic/thread without drafting a whole new document.

Sorry for the run-on sentences and for contributing to the forkage ? but I do appreciate each of the multiple discussions so far!

~Nick
[cid:image002.png at 01D23E96.743FA3F0]
Nick Caton, P.E., BEMP
Senior Energy Engineer
Energy and Sustainability Services
Schneider Electric

D 913.564.6361
M 785.410.3317
E nicholas.caton at schneider-electric.com
F 913.564.6380

15200 Santa Fe Trail Drive
Suite 204
Lenexa, KS 66219
United States

[cid:image001.png at 01D189AB.58634A10]

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Considering how much of the web nowadays is built upon "free stuff", it is very difficult to justify questioning the value of things you can get for free on the internet just because someone said "a very wise man once said so". Taking climate.onebuilding.org as an example, the arduous work Dru and Linda have put into collecting, processing and quality checking everything is truly amazing! If you have seen the folders still waiting to be processed in Dru's laptop, you will know what I am talking about.

Yi

Dr Yi Zhang, PhD CEng MCIBSE MASHRAE

Director

Energy Simulation Solutions Ltd. (UK)

T: +44 (0)7809 572863

E: yi.zhang at ensims.com

W: www.ensims.com

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Hey Nick,

We've had plenty of updates since the original announcement. But we
don't always push on the newslists. Here was the original announcement:

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Yi,

I don't think Nathan was referring to climate.onebuilding.org when he questioned the value
of free weather data on the Web. However, I think you're expressing a reverse bias (maybe
I'm wrong) that the free stuff is more curated or quality controlled than the "commercial"
stuff. The quality of anything on the Web, including weather data, should be judged on
their own merits, not their source or origin.

I don't think of the "free" weather as free, but rather subsidized, mostly by the
government. NREL did a fine job with the TMY2, TMY3, etc., but they had a rather large
DOE contract to produce them. But after the project was done and problems were found,
NREL admitted to them in 2009, but the fix was not made until six years later by an
outside volunteer (me). I'm saying this not as criticism of NREL but to show that it's an
imperfect world all around.

Joe

Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, Inc.
346 Rheem Blvd., Suite 205A
Moraga CA 94556
yjhuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.com for simulation-ready weather data
(o) (925)388-0265
(c) (510)928-2683
"building energy simulations at your fingertips"

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Hi Joe,

I have absolutely no intention to suggest that paid stuff are of inferior
quality compared to the free stuff. Like you said, they must be judged on
their own merits, not by the price tag. My argument is that the real effort
behind "free" stuff, should it be driven by public/commercial funds or
personal endeavor, can easily be overlooked. It is unfortunately human
nature not to pay attention to the things that can be obtained easily... (I
am thinking about energy, now.) By the way, I do believe people's personal
commitment is a much stronger driver for quality than money.

The thing that irritated me was the clich? such as "the only good thing
about ... is its price", even though it may be true in certain situations.
Have you ever heard wise men saying "the most expensive kind of advice is
free advice"? If that is true, people should be fleeing from this forum
right now ;-)

Yi

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I've enjoyed this thread and have held the urge to participate but this may be my last chance before it dissipates.

I deeply enjoy using open source tools myself. That said, as I get to know my presenters better, such as the Ladybug plugin development team, I am increasingly aware of the years of effort and personal sacrifices that went into these public services and we owe it to the brilliant minds that make our work possible, to in turn make sure they themselves are also taken care of.

Kind regards,
Arpan

...

Performance Network
http://www.performance.network

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