The Design Reference Year

Design Reference Years are used as climatic input data for computer calculations-simulations - mainly of solar energy systems, and of building energy consumption, energy conservation, indoor climate and comfort. They can be seen as a new generation of such data collections already known as Test Reference Years in Europe or Typical Meteorological Year or WYEC in US. The advantages of DRY's, compared to existing TRY's are: more correct monthly mean values and; standard deviations for many parameters; some new parameters not available in the existing TRY's; new types of parameters, eg 5 minute values for direct normal radiation, or forecast information to be used with simulation of "intelligent" energy management systems. This paper describes the news in the Design Reference Years. It is the outcome of a cooperation in IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme task 9, Solar Radiation and Pyranometry. Two reports will be published within this year, one as a guide for producers of DRY, another as a model for national DRY users guides.