The external climate is an important driving force affecting thermal conditions in a building. Location and weather data is specified in the utility APlocate.
APlocate allows you to specify weather data for the following purposes
· Simulation of the building for design or appraisal – for this purpose any suitable weather file appropriate to the location may be used.
· Simulation of the building for Building Regulations compliance – here the Regulations stipulate particular weather files.
· Heating and cooling load calculations (ASHRAE Loads and CIBSE Loads).
The selection of location and weather data for building regulatory compliance is a requirement for all ratings systems. For simulation-based ratings analyses the annual simulations must use the CIBSE 2005 Test Reference Year (TRY) for the location nearest to the building site.
The locations applicable for Part L2A 2010 compliance checking, and for which TRY datasets are available, are:
· Glasgow
· Belfast
· Swindon
· Norwich
· Birmingham
· London*
· Leeds
· Newcastle
· Nottingham
· Plymouth
· Manchester*
· Cardiff
· Southampton
· Edinburgh*
*Note only three locations are used for SBEM-based ratings. <VE Compliance> will automatically choose the closest location.
Use of the weather files for simulation-based ratings is governed by a licence which must be purchased from CIBSE. Customers purchasing these licences from CIBSE should state that they are IES customers, and on receipt of this information from CIBSE, IES will then supply the weather data files in the format used by the <VE>.
APlocate also sets the building location and information on the calendar and the setting of clocks, which is important in calculations of solar position. For ratings purposes calendar and clock settings are assigned automatically, overriding the user settings.
APlocate may be invoked from either the Building Regulations menu bar or the Building Regulations toolbar or the Regulations Panel.
Please refer to the APlocate Section of this Help Site for further information on this utility.
