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Abstract

Traditionally, hourly weather years such as the test reference years (TRYs) and design summer years (DSYs) have been used for building energy and thermal performance analysis. Until recently, these weather datasets were based on observed measurements, but the need to adapt buildings to the impacts of likely future climate change has introduced a requirement to incorporate climate projections, such as the UK Climate Projections (UKCP09), into building performance analysis. Four research projects, funded by the EPSRC, examined the use of UKCP09 data, and the associated Weather Generator tool, in producing weather files appropriate for building simulation. A methodology called ‘morphing’, previously used to create the currently available to practitioners, UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP02) based, CIBSE Future Weather Years, will also be discussed here as a potential alternative for the production of UKCP09-based weather files. This article reviews all above methodologies developed to produce weather files for building simulation, using the UKCP09 projections, and discusses their benefits and limitations as well as their ease of use by designers.

Practical application: This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the various methodologies currently available for the production of future weather files for building thermal and energy performance simulation using the UKCP09 projections. This analysis aims to provide users with the benefits and limitations associated with each methodology and end product based on their accessibility, consistency with other currently used datasets, computational resources required and spatial availability.

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The use of UKCP09 to produce weather files for building simulation

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