Impact of Meteorological Data Composition on Cost-Optimal Retrofitting Strategy for a Residential Building in a Hot Climate

摘要

Cost-optimal retrofitting of buildings has become a regulatory requirement in many countries. The process involves the testing of different energy conservation measures (ECMs) that can be applied to an existing building. The aim is to identify the best measure or combination of measures that save the most energy relative to the retrofitting cost needed for achieving that saving. Studying the energy conservation measures requires simulating the energy behavior of the considered building using an energy modeling software. An essential input for this type of software is the meteorological data. This data directly impacts the cooling and heating load of the building. Hence, it affects the results of the building energy simulation and consequently the selection of the appropriate ECMs. The meteorological data file used by a simulation software for a particular location is generated from the raw data collected over several years at a meteorological data station close to the tested building's location. The generated file is commonly referred to as the typical meteorological year (TMY) for that location. There are standard methods to generate the TMY from the raw data. However, the selection of which years in history to use, and the relative contribution of the different components of this raw data are important inputs that impact the final data presented in the TMY. Hence, several TMYs can be generated for the same location and from the same meteorological data station. This paper examines the impact of using these various TMYs on the results of energy simulation software and consequently, the energy saving potential of using different combinations of ECMs. The aim is to check whether the cost-optimal combination of ECMs will vary with various TMYs. The results show that there can be an impact, particularly if the dominant ECMs are affected by external loads. However, the impact is relatively minor and can be ignored.