Digital Workshops Series

Understanding Weather Files and Visualizing Data

Using Computerized Tools

Climate Analysis

GEOMETRY

LOADS

RESULTS

Diego Ibarra, M.Arch, MDesS, Doctoral Student. Sustainable Design.

Harvard Graduate School of Design

Agenda
Weather Files (EPW, WEA, etc)
Overview of the Weather Tool
Overview of Climate Consultant 4
Demo: Visualization of EPWs using
Weather Tool
Demo: Editing EPWs using Excel

Diego Ibarra

Context: All Environmental Design starts with a

comprehensive Climate Analysis.
Orientations

Daylight

CFD
1

Solar rays

Energy use

LCA

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Sustainable Design
It all starts by analyzing the local
environmental conditions.

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OVERVIEW
Different GUIs for visualizing
Weather Data

Weather Data

Other..

(EPW)

Weather Files
(i.e. Energy Plus Weather Files
EPW)

Graphical User Interfaces

Fundamentals: Typical Meteorological Year A Description

A TMY is a data set of hourly values of solar radiation and meteorological

elements for a 1-year period.

It consists of months selected from individual years and concatenated to form

a complete year. Because of the selection criteria, TMYs are not appropriate
for simulations of wind energy conversion systems.

A TMY provides a standard for hourly data for solar radiation and other
meteorological elements that permit performance comparisons of system
types and configurations for one or more locations.

A TMY in not necessarily a good indicator of conditions over the next year, or
even the next 5 years. Rather, it represents conditions judged to be typical
over a long period of time, such as 30 years. Because they represent typical
rather than extreme conditions, they are not suited for designing systems and
their components to meet the worst-case conditions occurring at a location.
(User's Manual for TMY2s)
Diego Ibarra

Weather Data Sets

TMY data sets derived from the 1953 - 1975 National Climatic
Data Center (NCDC), for 26 stations.
TMY2 data sets derived from the 1961-1990 National Solar
Radiation Data Base (NSRDB), for 239 stations.
TMY3 data sets derived from the 1961-1990 and 1991-2005
National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB), for 1020
stations.
NOTE: TMY, TMY2 and TMY3 data sets cannot be used interchangeably because of differences in time (solar
versus local), formats, elements, and units. Unless they are revised, programs designed for TMY data will not
work with TMY2 data.
All illuminance and luminance values for all TMY3 stations from January 2 to 31 should be multiplied by 100
to obtain the correct units of Lux and Candela per square meter. NREL will be posting a corrected data set in
the near future (older TMY3s).

Diego Ibarra

Weather Files
WEA: Weather Data File
EPW: Energy Plus Weather Data files
IWEC (Data set: new International
Weather for Energy Calculations format
from ASHRAE)

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Weather Files
International Weather for Energy Calculations (IWEC)
The IWEC are the result of ASHRAE Research Project 1015 by Numerical Logics and
Bodycote Materials Testing Canada for ASHRAE Technical Committee 4.2
Weather Information. The IWEC data files are 'typical' weather files suitable for
use with building energy simulation programs for 227 locations outside the USA
and Canada. All 227 locations in the IWEC data set are available for download in
EnergyPlus weather format.
The files are derived from up to 18 years of DATSAV3 hourly weather data originally
archived at the U. S. National Climatic Data Center. The weather data is
supplemented by solar radiation estimated on an hourly basis from earth-sun
geometry and hourly weather elements, particularly cloud amount information.
The IWEC CD-ROM is available from ASHRAE. The reference for the IWEC is:
ASHRAE. 2001. International Weather for Energy Calculations (IWEC Weather Files)
Users Manual and CD-ROM, Atlanta: ASHRAE

Diego Ibarra

Weather Files

Global Irradiation is the amount of energy striking a horizontal surface

during the hour.

Direct Beam Irradiation gives the irradiation striking a plate perpendicular

to the sun's rays but does not include diffuse radiation.

Dry Bulb Temperature and Wind Speed are averaged over the hour.

The Wet Bulb Temperature is the temperature shown by a thermometer

bulb surrounded by a damp wick. The WBT varies from the dry bulb
temperature according to the amount of evaporation and thus the humidity.

Wind Direction shows the compass points from which the wind is coming.
Usually measured at 10mts high at an unobstructed location (airports).

Cloud Cover is a visual estimate of the proportion of cloud covering the sky.
In this case it is in eights so 0 is no cloud and 8 is full cloud cover.

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Weather Files summary

Hourly temperatures
Solar radiation (global and direct)
Humidity
Wind (direction and speed)
Cloud cover

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WeatherTool File Format: .WEA

The Weather Tool uses its own proprietary .WEA file
format, also used by all Square One products.
File sizes were once an issue. some ASCII weather files
are larger, such as the TMY2 format for example,
weighing in at over 1.2Meg. The WEA file comes in at
139K, stores roughly the same data and compresses
down to less than 55K.
It DOES NOT store the same number of data validation
flags as EPWs, however this is not necessary for the uses
to which it is put in a weather visualization tool. Be sure
in the future to run energy simulations with EPW files.

Diego Ibarra

EPW: U.S. Department of Energy

Weather data for more than 2100 locations are now

available in EnergyPlus weather format 1042
locations in the USA, 71 locations in Canada, and
more than 1000 locations in 100 other countries
throughout the world. (Compiled from TMY, TMY2,
TMY3, and other international data sets).

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Downloading EPWs

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Downloading EPWs

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EPW: U.S. Department of Energy

Each file is named using the ISO standard three-letter country abbreviation (i.e. CUB for
Cuba), followed by the location name, World Meteorological Organization designation
(WMO) and the source format (CTZ2, CWEC, CityUHK, CSWD, CTYW, ETMY, IGDG, IMGW,
IMS, INETI, ISHRAE, ITMY, IWEC, KISR, NIWA, RMY, SWEC, SWERA, or TMY3). Thus,
CUB_Havana.782240_IWEC.epw is the EnergyPlus weather file (EPW) from the
ASHRAE International Weather for Energy Calculations (IWEC) data for Havana, Cuba,
WMO 782240.
There are three files associated with each location: EnergyPlus weather files (EPW), a
summary report on the data (STAT), and a compressed file (ZIP) which contains the EPW,
STAT, and DDY (design conditions) files for the location. Note: all IWEC files only have
STAT and ZIP files.
Viewing Instructions
You can view the individual EPW and STAT files by clicking on one of the buttons above.
Download Instructions
For a specific location, you can download either Individual weather data files (EPW
format) or a data summary report (STAT format). File sizes range from 0.9 - 1.4 MB.
Or a ZIP file containing both weather data and summary report, EPW, and STAT formats.
Files sizes range from 190 - 250 KB.
Diego Ibarra

Weather Tool (Originally Square One bought by Autodesk)

The Weather Tool is a
visualization and analysis
program for hourly climate
data. It recognizes a wide
range of international

Graphical User Interface

weather file formats.

Diego Ibarra

Weather Tool- Benefits

Very user friendly Graphical User Interface. If you are
using ECOTECT, it comes with the suite. Maintains a
design expression of a report or presentation.
Flashy visualizations: loved by architects and great
impact on clients.
Easier to identify SOME patterns and subtle details that
characterize each different climate. (Solar)
Thresholds are less customizable and less detailed.
No available detailed technical information about the
passive strategies criteria (black box).
Diego Ibarra

Weather Tool- Benefits

No available detailed technical information about
the passive strategies criteria (black box).
USE MAINLY TO DERIVE GENERAL CLIMATIC
CONDITIONS or TO CARRY OUT CLIMATE
COMPARISONS. (Relative Differences)
For detailed quantitative analysis the use of
Climate Consultant is suggested.

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Weather Tool

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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: June
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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: October
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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: December
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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: March
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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: June
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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: All year

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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: All year

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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: All year plan view

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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: view in Weather Tool

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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

How to read the chart

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Stereographic Chart: azimuth angles

Shifting the curve to the left

2

130
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Stereographic Chart: Altitude Lines

Degrees

Shifting the curve to the left

129

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Stereographic Chart: Date Lines

Shifting the curve to the left

Months
2

July

Dec

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Stereographic Chart: Hour Lines

HoursShifting the curve to the left

1

9:00am
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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

Or just
read.
2

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Psychrometric Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

How to read the chart

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Psychrometric Chart: temperature axis

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Temperature (C - F)
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Psychrometric Chart: temperature lines

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Temperature (C - F)

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Psychrometric Chart: absolute humidity axis

Shifting the curve to the left

W
(g/kga)

Absolute Humidity

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Psychrometric Chart. Absolute humidity lines

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Temperature

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W
(g/kga)

Psychrometric Chart: dew point line

DewShifting
pointthe curve to the left
2

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Psychrometric Chart: dew point line

DewShifting
pointthe curve to the left
(condensation)
2

35
g/kga
4

30 C
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Psychrometric Chart: dew point line

DewShifting
pointthe curve to the left
(condensation)
2

15

g/kga

20 C
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Psychrometric Chart: relative humidity idea

Shifting the curve to the left

100 %
75 %
50 %
25 %
0%
30 C
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Psychrometric Chart: Relative Humidity lines

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Relative Humidity Lines

Connecting the lines at each
specific temperature

75 %
50 %
25 %

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Psychrometric Chart: WBT (wet bulb temp.)

Shifting the curve to the left

More air mixture

2
information hidden
in the graph

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Psychrometric Chart: Enthalpy

Shifting the curve to the left

More air mixture

2
information hidden
in the graph

Joules/Kg of dry air

(20.000-110.000)
4

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Psychrometric Chart: Specific Volume

Shifting the curve to the left

More air mixture

2
information hidden
in the graph

m3/Kg of dry air

4

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Psychrometric Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Comfort Zone
4

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Stereographic Chart

Shifting the curve to the left

2

Boston: view in Weather Tool

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Weather Tool

Weather file directory

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Weather Tool

Data Categories

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Weather Tool

Data visualization

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Weather Tool

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Analysis Techniques: Climate Comparison

BOSTON:

ABU DHABI:

Average Dry Bulb Temperature

Max: 20 C

Average Dry Bulb Temperature

Max: 43 C

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Analysis Techniques: Climate Comparison

BOSTON:

ABU DHABI :

Direct Solar Radiation

Max. aprox: 500 W/m2

Direct Solar Radiation

Max. aprox: 900 W/m2

Diego Ibarra

Analysis Techniques: Absolute values

North : 343 kWh/m2/a
East : 778 kWh/m2/a

-132 Degrees:
1,083 kWh/m2/a

South : 956 kWh/m2/a

Sun position 22 October 8:30pm
Sun position 19 November 12:00pm
Sun position 22 October 4:30pm

-117.3, 26.7
-177.8, 46.3
-103.8, 21.5

Diego Ibarra

Climate Consultant 4
Developed by the Department of
Architecture and Urban Design.
University of California, Los
Angeles.
Graphically displays climate data
in either metric or imperial units

Graphical User Interface

in dozens of ways useful to

architects.

Diego Ibarra

Climate Consultant 4 - Benefits

Easier to identify unique patterns and subtle details that
characterize each different climate.
Thresholds and comfort zones are more flexible.
In contrast to The Weather Tool, detailed technical
information about the passive strategies criteria is
documented and freely available.

Diego Ibarra

Climate Consultant 4
The Wind Wheel graphics shows velocity and
direction correlated with temperature and
humidity, and can be animated hourly or daily or
monthly.
The psychrometric analysis recommends the most
appropriate passive design strategies as outlined
in Givonis Man Climate and Architecture.
Climate Consultant is written in Java and runs on
both Windows and Mac OS X computers.
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Climate Consultant 4

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Climate Consultant 4

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Climate Consultant 4

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Top 20 Passive Design Guidelines

It now calculates a set of the top 20 Design Guidelines
based on your unique climate and the passive design
strategies you selected on the Psychrometric Chart.
Each Guideline has a sketch illustrating how it applies. The
Guidelines and their accompanying sketches were based in
part on Watson and Labs Climatic Building Design, and on
Loftness,.et.al, Regional Guidelines for Building Passive
Energy Conserving Homes.

Diego Ibarra

Selecting Passive Strategies

must take into account the building typology/use

source: Energy
center of Wisconsin
GSD 6413 ZED*WORKSHOP
RESEARCH
18 SEP 2009

NAME

Diego Ibarra

Windows VISTA installation issues

Vista users sometimes have installation problems. In the
current version, the C:\Program Files has a stringent
security mechanism that has resulted in many complaints.
Users cannot explicitly create files in this directory hierarchy.
Vista 7 may allow users to lower this level of security. Here
is a workaround. When you install the program, explicitly
change the target directory to C:\CC4 in order to bypass the
C:\Program Files security restriction then the installation
should finish without error.

Diego Ibarra

Technical Paper Climate Consultant

For more information download the technical paper for Climate

Consultant:

Climate Consultant 3.0: A Tool for Visualizing Building Energy

Implications of Climates Murray Milne, Robin Liggett, and Rashed
Al-Shaali, Proceedings of the American Solar Energy Association
Conference, Cleveland, Ohio, July, 2007.
http://www2.aud.ucla.edu/energy-design-tools/papers.html

Developers: Professor Murray Milne

Department of Architecture and Urban Design
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California 90095-1467
milne@ucla.edu

Diego Ibarra

Demo
The Weather Tool
Climate Consultant 4
Importing EPWs
Editing EPWs in Excel

Diego Ibarra

Questions
dibarra@gsd.harvard.edu

Diego Ibarra