SE-76-02-1 -- A Weather Simulation Model for Building Energy Analysis

Background. Recently, in times of limited energy supplies, there has been a growing need to predict more accurately the energy consumption in our buildings. The reason for this is that building owners and designers have begun to evaluate the life-cycle costs of owning and operating buildings as well as the first costs in order to make valid comparisons between architectural & mechanical alternatives. No longer is the first cost of a building the only factor in an economic evaluation. The future energy that a building consumes is now a streng determinant in deciding what environmental control systems go into the building during its initial construction. A detailed analysis of buildings' future energy uses is becoming as crucial to the design process as any of the other analytical-tools which are in every day use by building designers not only from an economic feasibility viewpoint but also from the viewpoint of energy standards which may be imposed on all future buildings. These considerations are what has given impetus to the conduct of research into rel!fining the methods of building energy analysis, and thus to the development of this weather simulation model.