Simulated and Measured Environments (SaME Lab)
ASHRAE Adaptive Comfort: A standard for thermal comfort in naturally ventilated buildings included in ASHRAE Standard 55
Climate Analysis: The assessment and interpretation of site-specific climatic conditions such as sun exposure, wind patterns, and temperature variations, to inform design decisions and optimize building performance.
Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI): or beam radiation, is measured at the surface of the Earth at a given location with a surface element perpendicular to the Sun direction
Diffuse Horizontal Radiation (DHI), or diffuse sky radiation is the radiation at the Earth's surface from light scattered by the atmosphere.
Dry Bulb Temperature: The dry-bulb temperature (DBT) is the temperature of air measured by a thermometer freely exposed to the air, but shielded from radiation. DBT is the temperature that is usually thought of as air temperature.
Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) is the total irradiance from the sun on a horizontal surface. It is the sum of the Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance and the Direct Normal Irradiance, projected onto the horizontal plane using the solar zenith angle (z).
Heating Degree Day / Cooling Degree Day: Degree days are based on the assumption that when the outside temperature is 65°F, we don't need heating or cooling to be comfortable. Read more from the NWS.
Heat Index (HI) is another measure of heat stress that uses relative humidity and dry bulb temperature to deduce the likelihood of heat disorders with prolonged exposure or strenuous activity . The metric is based off the National Weather Service’s (NWS) heat forecast tools. For each timestep in the climate file, the HI heatmap gives an indication of date, time, temperature, and a heat index of either no risk, caution, extreme caution, danger, or extreme danger.
Relative Humidity: Relative humidity (RH) (expressed as a percent) also measures water vapor, but RELATIVE to the temperature of the air. In other words, it is a measure of the actual amount of water vapor in the air compared to the total amount of vapor that can exist in the air at its current temperature. Warm air can possess more water vapor (moisture) than cold air, so with the same amount of absolute/specific humidity, air will have a HIGHER relative humidity if the air is cooler, and a LOWER relative humidity if the air is warmer. What we "feel" outside is the actual amount of moisture (absolute humidity) in the air.
UTCI, or Universal Thermal Climate Index, measures the heat stress on the human body induced by a set of climatic conditions – including air temperature, humidity, wind, and radiation.
Wind Speed and Direction: The rate at which air is moving horizontally past a given point. It may be a 2-minute average speed (reported as wind speed) or an instantaneous speed (reported as a peak wind speed, wind gust, or squall).
ANSI/ASHRAE/ICC/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2020 Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings
Cambium NREL data sets contain modeled possible futures of the U.S. electricity sector through 2050 for hourly emission and cost.
Electricity Maps has data on many countries’ electricity CO2 footprint.
NWS Glossary
NYSERDA energy annual prices provides New York state fuel prices for different fuels.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisitcs average energy prices provides electricity price per kWh by state.
US Department of Energy’s EnergyPlus.
United States Environmental Protection Agency’s power profiler can look up fuel mix and CO2 emission by zip code.
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CBE Clima Tool allows users to analyze and visualize climatic data. Climate Analysis based on internationally available EPW files.
Betti G., Tartarini F., Nguyen C., Schiavon S. (2022). CBE Clima Tool: a free and open-source web application for climate analysis tailored to sustainable building design. Version: 0.8.10 https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2212.04609
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