AMY file for custom period of time, June to June for example

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I used to purchase my AMY files from Weather Analytics. They would build files for custom time periods, but I can't figure out if they are still selling these files. They list AMY files on their website, but I can't figure out where to purchase them. I sent them an email inquiring, over a month ago, but never got a response.

Is there anywhere else to get AMY files easily and at a reasonable price?

EDIT:

White Box provides full year historical data, but for many Measurement and Verification applications, it is useful to have some months out of the current year, or have a year's worth of data starting in the middle of one year and going into the middle of the next. I haven't been able to find anyone who does anything like this.

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kwalkerman

asked 2016-03-22 15:05:33 -0500

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__AmirRoth__

updated 2016-10-20 19:38:12 -0500

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Whitebox will provide custom time period weather files as you describe. Sent an email with your query. I have had them construct weather files with April-December of one year and January-March of the next year.

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Chris Jones

answered 2016-03-22 15:31:00 -0500

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I guess it depends on what you define as 'reasonable'. White Box Technologies has a decent library.

See here: http://weather.whiteboxtechnologies.c...

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Adam Hilton

answered 2016-03-22 15:11:34 -0500

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Ah, yes - I meant to add that Weather Analytics allowed files to be part of one year and part of the next (say June 2014 - May 2015), which allowed calibration to occur much earlier than with White Box files. In regards to the price, I consider $50 very reasonable.

kwalkerman (2016-03-22 15:18:09 -0500) edit

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One potential source for solar data is the NSRDB. You can find this data via maps.nrel.gov and by selecting the NSRDB Viewer. However it appears they only have data through 2014, and not up to minute data.

You can download hourly GHI data as well as several other weather values.

I believe the solar data is generated by running cloud cover satellite imagery through a model.

spqr

answered 2016-03-29 09:52:41 -0500

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Weather Analytics still sells AMY data, they just funnel it through IES-VE. You can purchase it here, though it is still a full year of data, not partial: https://www.iesve.com/support/weather...

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Anna Osborne Brannon

answered 2018-04-19 00:02:31 -0500

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You can also try the poor man's hack which is to use the raw data from NOAA here . Unfortunately, most of these don't include solar data (it's sad how little measured solar data we have given how important it can be), so you'll have to use a workaround to get a complete set. The process looks like this:

Start with a complete TMY weather data set for your location.
Download actual weather data from link above (and probably import it to something like Excel).
Fill in any gaps that may be in the data and make any required unit conversions.
Merge the drybulb/wetbulb/pressure/wind direction/wind speed from the NOAA data with the TMY data. This new data set will essentially contain AMY ambient air data and TMY solar data. Elements can be a very useful tool for this task, or you can use Excel/notepad and the old FMTWTH program if you're using DOE2.

This method is going to be most accurate for buildings which rely on a lot of outside air (e.g. labs) and least accurate for buildings with a lot of glazing. If you feel that solar could have a large impact on the building, or if you want a high level of accuracy, I would recommend purchasing a set from someone like White Box as the others have suggested (also if it's worth the reduced hassle of having to create the file yourself). Good AMY files will use state of the art algorithms for providing the best estimate of solar radiation.