Comparison of untypical meteorological years (umy) and their influence on building energy performance simulations

Three versions (type 1, 2 and 3) of untypical climate data based on the Weather Year for Energy Calculations 2 (WYEC2) methodology were calculated. The following parameters were altered in comparison with standard WYEC2 year: the average value of a total daily amount of solar radiation; the average and maximum wind speed; the average, minimum and maximum dry bulb temperature; the average, minimum and maximum dew point temperature. These new meteorological years were used for energy simulation of well-known building types used for ANSI 140 standard tests – Building Energy Simulation Test (BESTEST). Results of energy simulations were compared with base typical meteorological years to determine the influence of each meteorological parameter, that was altered while determining new climate data.  The calculations were made for four orientations (north, south, east and west) for cases: 600, 610, 900 and 910 of BESTEST. Cases were located in the centre of Poland. It is important that the simulations with new meteorological years were not compared with BESTEST simulations output. The results were obtained with an hourly time step and include: total annual heating and cooling energy demands and transient heat fluxes. In addition, the effects of various types of meteorological years on the criterion of comfort - Percentage People Dissatisfied (PPD) parameter were analysed. Comparison of the results computed for Untypical Meteorological Years (UMY) with typical meteorological year shows that the UMY files have strong application potential, especially in building performance simulations of energy and power demands for heating. In simulations of cooling energy and power demands, UMY files assure comparable results to typical weather files.