Weather Data Availability¶

Typically, acquisition of weather data has been a user's burden. Though this will remain the case in many instances for EnergyPlus users, the EnergyPlus team has been successful in making a wealth of US, Canadian and International data available to our users. To summarize, the weather data for 2092 locations is available at the EnergyPlus web site: https://www.energyplus.net

The details are shown in Table table:summary-of-downloadable-weather-data-by-type. Summary of Downloadable Weather Data by Type. This data has been selected with the energy simulation user in mind. All the data (as well as the statistical reports - described later in this document) are downloadable for individual locations.

Data Element	DOE-2	BLAST	ESP-r	E/E
Location (name, latitude, longitude, elevation, time zone)	X	X	X	X
Data source				X
Commentary			X	X
Design conditions				X
Typical/extreme periods			X	X
Data periods				X
Holiday/Daylight Saving		X		X
Solar Angles/Equation of Time Hours		X
Degree Days		X		X
Year	X	X	X	X
Month	X	X	X	X
Day	X	X	X	X
Hour	X	X	X	X
Minute				X
Data source and uncertainty flags				X
Dry bulb temperature	X	X	X	X
Wet bulb temperature	X	X
Dew point temperature	X			X
Atmospheric station pressure	X	X		X
Humidity ratio	X	X
Relative humidity			X	X
Enthalpy	X
Density	X
Wind Speed	X	X	X	X
Wind Direction	X	X	X	X
Infrared Sky Temperature		X		X
Solar Radiation (global, normal, diffuse)	X	X	X	X
Illuminance (global, normal, diffuse)				X
Sky cover (cloud amount)	X			X
Opaque sky cover				X
Visibility				X
Ceiling height				X
Clearness (monthly)	X
\"Undisturbed\" Ground temperatures (monthly)	X			X
Present weather observation and codes (rain, snow)		X		X
Precipitable water				X
Aerosol optical depth				X
Snow depth				X
Days since last snowfall				X
Albedo				X
Liquid Precipitation Depth				X
Liquid Precipitation Quantity				X

Table: Comparison of E/E with ESP-r/DOE-2/BLAST Weather Data Formats