Heating and cooling climates, where is the cut off?
There are a lot of different articles that reference heating/cooling climates. My question is where is this line? There seems to be an unwritten rule that everyone knows which one you are in. To be honest I didn’t know if Dever was heating or cooling. It does get cold here, but it also is warm most of the time. In the summer we seem to have more and more 90 plus degree days each year. As of this writing, we have had 60 days at 90 or higher. This doesn’t count today either, a high of 95. Looking at the ten-day forecast, we are going to have 5 more days to add. I digress….
As a native, I have always had to heat in the winter, cool in the summer, and do nothing for spring and fall. Its seems like we are in the middle.
I did look up the average temperatures for Denver and found, the average high is 64 and the average low is 36, which makes me think Denver is a heating climate. But as someone who lives here it “seems” that we are in the middle.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
If you have more heating degree days than cooling degree days in a year, then you’re in a heating dominated climate. If you have more cooling degree days than heating degree days in year, then you’re in a cooling dominated climate. Basically you’re in a heating dominated climate if you use more energy to heat than to cool, and you’re in a cooling dominated climate if you use more energy to cool than to heat.
The EIA has some good info about heating degree days here: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/units-and-calculators/degree-days.php
NOAA has some good maps of degree days here: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/asos/
I’m pretty sure Denver is a heating dominated climate, but I know you have pretty goofy weather out there and there is a BIG difference as you go up higher in altitude. From my own experience visiting family out there, I think you’re in a humidifier-dominated climate ;-)
Bill