Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
What analysis do you plan to do with these locations? If it is strictly solar-related (e.g., PV, Solar hot water, or shading) then you might want to select latitudes that represent the range of human population:
If you need characteristics other than solar information, you might want to also select locations based on some climate zone definition.
There are also several maps available which show global solar insolation. These can help select locations that might be meaningful for your study as well. A quick Google image search for "solar resource map latitude" gives several options like this:
Ultimately, the impact of changing 4 degrees will depend on what you are investigating as well. For some analyses, like commercial building energy usage, 4 degrees difference might not have any significant impact, but if you are looking at the output of a PV system, then the only way to know if 4 degrees latitude makes a significant difference may be to perform the sensitivity study yourself.
| | 2 | No.2 Revision |
What analysis do you plan to do with these locations? If it is strictly solar-related (e.g., PV, Solar hot water, or shading) then you might want to select latitudes that represent the range of human population:
If you need characteristics other than solar information, you might want to also select locations based on some climate zone definition.
There are also several maps available which show global solar insolation. These can help select locations that might be meaningful for your study as well. A quick Google image search for "solar resource map latitude" gives several options like this:
There is no theory, rule of thumb, or body of work that I know of that speaks to the distance at which two weather locations are significantly different. Ultimately, the impact of changing 4 degrees will depend on what you are investigating as well. investigating. For some analyses, like commercial building energy usage, 4 degrees difference might not have any significant impact, but if you are looking at the output of a PV system, then the only way to know if 4 degrees latitude makes a significant difference may be to perform the sensitivity study yourself.
| | 3 | No.3 Revision |
What analysis do you plan to do with these locations? If it is strictly solar-related (e.g., PV, Solar hot water, or shading) then you might want to select latitudes that represent the range of human population:
If you need characteristics other than solar information, you might want to also select locations based on some climate zone definition.
There are also several maps available which show global solar insolation. These can help select locations that might be meaningful for your study as well. A quick Google image search for "solar resource map latitude" gives several options like this:
If you need characteristics other than solar information, you might want to also select locations based on some climate zone definition.
There is no theory, rule of thumb, or body of work that I know of that speaks to the distance at which two weather locations are significantly different. Ultimately, the impact of changing 4 degrees will depend on what you are investigating. For some analyses, like commercial building energy usage, 4 degrees difference might not have any significant impact, but if you are looking at the output of a PV system, then the only way to know if 4 degrees latitude makes a significant difference may be to perform the sensitivity study yourself.
