Normalize By Month

The Normalize By Month tool is useful when you have an existing weather file that you would like to calibrate to match some known monthly aggregate values, e.g., average monthly dry-bulb temperature.

We will use Normalize By Month on a new default weather file to get a sense for how it works.

1. Start Elements.
2. Click on New Weather File.
3. Select IP Units.
4. Click anywhere under the Dry Bulb Temperature column.
5. Click the Normalize By Month button and the Normalize by Month Dialog will appear.
6. Check that Variables to Hold Constant is set to “Relative Humidity, Atmospheric Pressure”.
7. Select “Scale by Average”.
8. Under New Average, type “65” for January and hit Enter.
9. Click the OK button.
10. You should now see all of the January dry-bulb temperatures are equal to 65 F.
11. Set the temperature value of the first dry bulb temperature (2013/01/01 @ 00:00:00) to 50 F.
12. Set the temperature value of the second dry bulb temperature (2013/01/01 @ 01:00:00) to 70 F.
13. Select a cell under Dry Bulb Temperature.
14. Click the Normalize By Month button.
15. For Scaling Method, choose “Scale by Minimum/Maximum”.
16. Set New Max to 60 F for January.
17. Click the OK button.
18. Note that the values for all temperatures that were previously 65 F (3/4 of the range between 50 and 70) have been rescaled to 57.5 F (which is again 3/4 of the range between 50 and 60).
19. Click anywhere in the Diffuse Solar column. Note that during daylight hours, diffuse solar has a value of 89.53 BTU/ft2.
20. Click the Normalize By Month button.
21. Check that Variables to Hold Constant is set to “Normal Solar”.
22. Change the New Sum value for January to roughly half the current value (13,850 BTU/ft2).
23. Click the OK button.
24. Note that the value of Diffuse Solar is now 37.29 BTU/ft2 or about half of its previous value.