Using custom solar profile within TMY file

answered 3 years ago

bonnema
176 ●11 ●5 http://www.nrel.gov/

updated 3 years ago

You could try:

Convert a TMY EPW to CSV, replace the solar columns with custom data, then convert back to EPW.
Use the solar EMS actuators here to override the TMY data. I typically use this in conjunction with an EMS sensor tied to a Schedule:File to read a CSV with the raw data.

Check out the weather converter programs documentation for information on creating custom weather files.

link

Comments

Adding onto option 1, Elements is a free tool that you can use to set weather data in a spreadsheet editor, but it includes rules for air psychrometrics and solar radiation to avoid violating basic physics (>100% RH, e.g.). This can save weather data in EPW format for EnergyPlus or BIN or FMT format for DOE-2. If you're sticking with raw TMY, then you would have to convert the resulting weather file from Elements.

Aaron Boranian ( 3 years ago )

Hello Bonnema and Aaron, thanks for your helpful replies. All the alternatives look very helpful. That would enable me test the current measured solar data I have. I'm not sure if I can present results from hybrid (historical + real solar) data. After preliminary testing, I believe I might have to generate a complete measured data weather file for the final results. Thanks again !