Generation of a Test Reference Year for Alūksne, Latvia

Precise and reliable meteorological data are necessary for building performance analysis. Since meteorological conditions vary significantly from year to year, there is a need to create a test reference year (TRY), to represent the long-term weather conditions over a year. In this paper two different TRY data models were generated and compared: TRY and TRY-2. Both models where created by analysing every 3-hour weather data for a 30-year period (1984–2013) in Alūksne, Latvia, provided by the Latvian Environment Geology and Meteorology Centre (LEGMC). TRY model was generated according to standard LVS EN ISO 15927-4, but to create second model - TRY-2, 30 year average data were applied. The generated TRY contains typical months from a number of different years. The data gathered from TRY and TRY-2 models where compared with the climate data from the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers regulation No. 379, Regulations Regarding Latvian Building Code LBN 003-01. Average monthly temperature values in LBN 003-01 were lower than the TRY and TRY-2 values. The results of this study may be used in building energy simulations and heating-cooling load calculations for selected region. TRY selection process should include the most recent meteorological observations and should be periodically renewed to reflect the long-term climate change.