I'm afraid your question is too vague to get a meaningful answer. What do you mean by "use"? Use how and in what program? If you're meaning to use in EnergyPlus (which seems to be the dominant program mentioned in Unmet Hours), EnergyPlus can read only one format, i.e., *.epw. There are other simulation programs, like TRNSYS, HAP, that can read weather files in different formats! It all has to do with attitude and perspective. For EnergyPlus (and DOE-2), you have to bend the weather data to fit their requirements. For TRNSYS, the attitude has been to adapt their program to the various formats of the available weather data. Clever, in my view, sort of like my small local bank allows me to use the ATM of any other bank and refund me the charges. They take a hit on the charges, but that let's them say they have ATMs all over the US.
Asked: 2015-07-10 06:21:14 -0600
Seen: 309 times
Last updated: Mar 02 '17
I suppose you can start with any format as long as you have the necessary data. It doesn't sound like a trivial task. Here is a related post, hopefully it is informative.
you want to use hourly meteorological data to do WHAT ? e.g.:
to create weather files (epw)
to display as output variables along with simulation results
.....
It depends on what type of data you want. If it is typical averaged historical data, TMY3 is a good source which can be open in excel and converted into hourly data. If it is the actual past weather conditions, AMY data is a good source and there are many websites offer the data for download.