Weather Data in GBS

SHARE
LIKE (0)

Good climate data is a critical input for valid building performance

analysis. The Autodesk Climate Server provides easy access to a
large database of climate and weather data within Autodesk
Green Building Studio, Revit, and Vasari.
Weather can vary greatly from site-to-site, even within a relatively
small geographical area. Most weather data comes from physical
weather stations, which are situated at large airports and may not
represent the weather at your building. Getting more locally
appropriate weather data can help improve the accuracy of your
energy analysis results.
Autodesks Climate Server has 1.6 million virtual weather stations
based on meteorological simulations. This means that you can
usually find useful weather data less than 14km away from a
building site almost anywhere in the world.
How much does weather data matter to energy simulation
results?
Energy simulation results are only as good as the underlying
model. This includes both the building geometry and the
environmental conditions like weather.
Your buildings climate and its design will determine the weather
variables that your energy model will be the most sensitive to. For
example, if your building has a lot of glazing and is in a sunny
climate, solar radiation is likely to be a dominating factor.
Generally, to get good simulation results for HVAC systems, youll
need accurate data on drybulb temperature and dew-point
temperature.
Also, because cooling can be so much more thermodynamically
efficient than heating, changes to weather conditions have less of

an impact on energy use results in cooling-dominated locations

(such as Los Angeles) than in heating dominated locations (like
Copenhagen). So you need to be extra careful about your
weather data in cold climates.
Lastly, if your weather data is generally correct and consistently
applied, it should be sufficient for early comparative design
studies.
Are Climate Data and Weather Data different - and when to
use each?
Climate data is based on historical averages, usually over a
period of record (PoR) of 30 years. Climate data is most useful for
predictive whole building energy simulations because it
represents typical conditions. That said, typical years may not be
a good indicator of the conditions over a given year or of a
changing climate. It does not represent extreme conditions (i.e.
abnormally hot or dry).
Weather data is from a specific day and time. Within an existing
building context, it can allow you to simulate a specific year and
compare the results to actual energy use. This is useful for
creating a calibrated energy model for as-built buildings. This
data can also be used for predictive building energy simulations,
with the caveat that it is more appropriate early, comparative
analysis when youre trying to understand how energy use
responds to different design options. It is not meant for HVAC
sizing, for example. For comparative analysis, the benefit of the
close proximity of the data to the building site can outweigh the
fact that it is for a single year, and not based on long-term climate
observations.
Where is data available?
There are virtual weather stations available for most of the world.
Exceptions include parts of central Africa, central Australia,

Russia, and extreme latitudes near the poles. Learn more about
the sources of this data in the Data Sources article.