Degree-day data sites?
What are peoples’ preferred internet sites for obtaining
heating/cooling degree-day stats? I’m looking for a
place I can get any of day-by-day, monthly/yearly tables,
etc for fairly localized points. I will need to do this
programmatically, i.e. sites that depend on javascript or
other browser fluff won’t do, and the data needs to be
available in a straightforward fashion without having to
install any special “apps” or plugins. Wunderground.com
allows looking up historical data for various airport-based
stations and isn’t a bad start, but I don’t necessarily want
to bang hard on their site to collect several months’ worth
of data at a time. Alternatives meeting the criteria of
usable simplicity therefore sought…
_H*
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
NREL's TMY3 data sets are where I go: http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/1991-2005/tmy3/
1000+ sites in the US, all hourly, and consistent format. You just need to do some Excel to process it down to whatever you want. One of these days I'll get around to making a template file for exactly this type of thing.
And there's also a Google Earth file to help you locate the nearest station: http://www.whiteboxtechnologies.com/weather_data.html
Try UCLA's energy design tool Climate Consultant 5.4. It's a free download and easy to use.
http://www.energy-design-tools.aud.ucla.edu/
I find http://www.degreedays.net/ pretty straightforward to use. I'm not sure how easy it is to script it rather than just downloading it in big chunks manually though.
Thanks, but ...
NREL TMY3: I think I'm looking for *current* data...
... from UCLA energy-design-tools site:
... Download Climate Consultant 5.4 [For Mac] (13 MB)
strike 1
... from degreedays:
... To use Degree Days.net, your browser must have JavaScript enabled.
strike 2
_H*