Blogtrack350

CTMY (Canadian TMY, 12 locations, derived from Canadian Government data)

CTMY2 (CTMY, updated 40 location version, derived from Canadian Government data)

CZ2 (California Climate Zones Revision 2, 16 zones, 1992 supplied by the California Energy Commission)

TMY (Typical Meteorological Year, 238 locations, derived from US NOAAs NCDC TMY datasets)

TMY2 (Typical Meteorological Year version 2, 238 locations, derived from USDOEs NREL datasets)

TMY3 (NEW -Typical Meteorological Year version 3, 1020 locations, derived from USDOEs NREL datasets. Thanks to Joe Huang at White Box Technologies for these files processed for use with DOE-2)

TRY (Test Reference Year, 60 locations, derived from US NOAAs NCDC datasets)

WYEC (Weather Year For Energy Calculations, 51 ASHRAE locations, derived from US NOAAs NCDC data)

WYEC2 (WYEC version 2, 51 ASHRAE locations, derived from US NOAAs NCDC datasets)

Note on WYEC and WYEC2: these are not the ASHRAE files -get those fromASHRAE.

NON-US (various ZIP archives containing undocumented data for locations outside North America)

eQ_WthProc: Convert EnergyPlus EPW Files into eQUEST and DOE-2 BIN Files

eQ_WthProc can convert EnergyPlus (epw) files into eQUEST/DOE-2 (bin) files.

Download the program archive into your eQUEST/Weather subdirectory; this can be done by right clicking on the above link and selecting “save target as” then navigating to your eQUEST installation directory and its Weather sub-directory and selecting save. Then unzip the program archive into your eQUEST weather directory retaining its directory structure.

If your eQUEST directory is not in the Program FileseQUEST 3-5 directory, or you install the program in an alternate location, you have two alternatives for correct program operation:

1. You can delete the the eQ_WthProc.INI (found in the EPW/Processor subdirectory) so that the program will create a new one upon startup.If you select this option the program will use the local directory for the location of ALL files, so you will need to visit the “EPW Weather File Conversion” and “Setup” tabs to change all program paths to the desired location(s) for proper operation.
2. You can edit the eQ_WthProc.INI (found in the EPW/Processor subdirectory) and change the four path names (two towards the top and two towards the bottom) by replacing the “Program FileseQUEST 3-5Weather” segment of the path to the correct value where you have installed the program.

Sample epw source and bin/ft converted files are included to illustrate program operation.epw files are placed into the EPW/SourceFiles directory, then processed on the “EPW Weather Files Conversion” tab by pressing the “Convert” button after selecting the file in the “EnergyPlus weather file” control. After conversion the resultant bin files can be found in the EPW directory for convenient access by eQUEST.

The processor includes the ability to graphically review the processed weather data. This is an important step in assuring the quality of the weather data and should be done each time a weather file is converted.

After file conversion, the hourly weather data is graphically viewed on the “Review Converted Data” tab. If multiple files have been converted during a program session, press the “List All Results” button to populate the pick list with all converted weather sites. The 'View Detailed Chart' button brings up a more detailed chart that allows for a thorough examination of the data, including comparison of original and final data. Missing or out-of-range data in the original file will be replaced with interpolated or previous-day data. Use the left and right mouse buttons and drag the cursor to zoom in and out of the hourly data.

The temporary data used for the graphics are deleted when the program is closed, so only those sites converted during the current session are available. If you want to save the graph data click on the 'Save CSV files' checkbox. You will find two files, one with the original data used from the EPW file and one with the final data used to create the BIN file. Be sure to copy or move these files to another directory if you want to save them.

The processor includes the ability to have direct normal solar data re-calculated. Some epw files contain questionable direct normal solar values while having seemingly good horizontal solar values; this problem can be diagnosed using the “Review Converted Data” tab (described above) and noting direct normal values that often or significantly exceed 1000. To correct problematic direct normal values just check the “Calculate Solar Direct-Normal based on Global Horizontal” check box on the “EPW Weather Files Conversion” tab and re-convert the data.

DOEWth: Convert NOAA/NCDC and Other Common Format Files into eQUEST and DOE-2 BIN Files

The DOE-2 processor that can convert a variety of standard formats, obtained from NOAA/NCDC and other sources, into DOE-2 bin files. This utility can process TMY2, WYEC2 CZ2 and other common formats but is a DOS box tool that does not include a windows user interface.

Download the program archive onto your hard drive; this can be done by right clicking on the above link and selecting “save target as” then navigating to the top most directory and selecting save. Then unzip the program archive onto the hard drive retaining its directory structure. A DOE22 directory will be created with a util32 subdirectory containing a number of batch procedure to utilize the DOEWth processor.These are described in the Readme.txt file in the util32 sub-directory, and include:

• LSTABIN- used to list a DOE-2 bin file
• LSTATMY- used to list a NOAA TMY format text file
• LSTATRY- used to list a NOAA TRY format text file
• MKAFT- used to create a text file (.ft format) from a bin file
• PKAFT- used to create a bin file from a text file (.ft format)
• PKATPE- used to process a NOAA text file into a DOE-2 bin file
• STAT - used to create a weather file statistical summary of a bin file