Examination of the concept of using 'typical-week' weather data for simulation of annualized energy use in buildings

This paper investigates the feasibility of using short segments of weather data to simulate annual energy use in buildings. Use of a “typical week” of weather data is investigated as an alternative to the normal 8760-hour annual simulation process. Statistically correct weekly weather data were first generated; then trial runs were made on a skin-load-dominated building in four U.S. cities using the DOE-2.1E and ENER-WIN-96.04 simulation software packages. Results from the typical week data correlate well to those derived from full annual energy simulations, but the simulation software models must be modified to accept the short-term data as input