Tips and Tricks for Using EnergyPlus — EnergyPlus 8.7

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Meteonorm Weather Files[LINK]

For locations that aren’t on the regular EnergyPlus weather site (http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/cfm/weather_data.cfm), the team has created weather data using the Meteonorm™ software. Meteonorm extrapolates hourly data from statistical data for a location. Where statistical data aren’t available, Meteonorm interpolates from other nearby sites. Generally, a statistical approach is a last resort—weather files generated from statistics will not demonstrate the normal hour-to-hour and day-to-day variability seen in measured data. Each .ZIP includes a .STAT (EnergyPlus weather data statistics), .EPW (EnergyPlus weather file), and .INFO (Information about the source data and limitations from Meteonorm).

In all cases, review the .STAT file for the location before using any of these files to ensure that it represents the climate of the locations as you understand it. In many cases, a nearby location with measured data may be more appropriate than one derived from statistics. These files, once created, are published on the EnergyPlus Yahoo Group site.

As always, if you know of sources of weather data that we might be able to share with the EnergyPlus community, please contact us.