Does EnergyPlus simulate continuously between months?
I'm working on a year-long simulation and, when producing monthly data, I see discrete jumps between the last day of a month and the first of the next. I understand weather files have these jumps due to "typical meteorological years" having months from different years. However, this shouldn't be reflected in Energy Zone Operative Temperatures if the simulation is run continuously.
I would expect a sharp rise/fall in the operative temperature of an unconditioned space, but not a discrete jump.
Can anyone give me a hand with this?
Can you clarify the time step of your simulation output. you mention at one point you are "producing monthly data". If you are then you will have single value for each month and it may jump from one month to the next. If you are reporting daily, hourly, or timestep data then this shouldn't happen. Switching between months is just another timestep, except for wrap around at start/end of simulation or EPW file data. Another question is the source of the EPW file you are using.
Hi David, thanks for answering. I have identified discrete jumps in Zone Operative Temperature between hourly timesteps, at the limit of 2 months. It seems arbitrary. My EPW file does have discrete jumps between months, but I expected the limit between months to have a "soft" change in Zone Operative Temperature, as the thermal simulation is continuous.
The source of the EPW file is One building: https://climate.onebuilding.org/WMO_R...