Te

emperrature
tem
mperatuure-icon..jpg

Tw
wo basic asspects of temperatu
t
ure are dry
y bulb tem
mperature and wet bulb
b
tempperature.
Fro
om these m
metrics yo
ou can leaarn about both
b
the air
a temperrature and
d the humiidity.

Tem
mperature daata given ass a monthly average and as a dailyy average
(Graaphs from Revit)
R

Dry
y Bulb T
Temperatture
Dry
y bulb tempperature is simply
s
the temperature
t
e of the air. It does nott consider moisture.
m
Itt is measureed in
degrrees Celsiuss, degrees Fahrenheit,
F
or Kelvin and
a can be measured
m
w a therm
with
mometer expposed to thee air.
It iss commonlyy referred to
o as the air teemperature and is repoorted in basiic weather reports.
r

We
et Bulb
b Tempe
erature
e
Wett bulb temperature is thhe air tempeerature that takes into account
a
thee cooling pootential of evvaporation. It is
meaasured by exxposing a moistened
m
thhermometerr bulb to airr flow (wrap
pping a therrmometer buulb in wet cloth
c
and swinging iit in the air)). The evapooration of th
he moisturee depends on
o the humidity of the air (think about
a
how
w slowly it takes wet hair to drry on a hum
mid day). Similar to the dry bu
ulb temperaature, wet bulb
tem
mperature cann be measurred in degreees Celsius,, degrees Faahrenheit, orr Kelvin.
Tog
gether, dry bbulb and weet bulb tempperatures caan describe humidity.
h

De
egree D
Days

Deg
gree days arre temperatuure past a thhreshold, mu
ultiplied by time
To get a sensee for the heaating and ccooling requ
uirements for
fo your buiilding site, a comfortabble temperaature
rang
ge needs too be set. Thhis range, often
o
referreed to as thee comfort zone, cann then be compared too the
buillding sites actual temp
peratures ovver time. When
W
the sitees temperaature is outsside of the comfort
c
zonne, it
is measured
m
in heating or cooling
c
degree days.
Forr example
If the weath
her is an aveerage of onee degree waarmer than comfortable
c
e for one daay, we say thhe building
needs one degree day
y" worth of
o cooling to
o stay comffortable.
If the weath
her is an aveerage of tenn degrees waarmer for onne day, or is one degreee warmer for
fo ten days,,
then the building needs ten coolin
ng degree days.
d
If the weath
her is ten deegrees below
w the comfoortable miniimum for a day, then thhe building needs ten
heating degree days.
Deg
gree days arre not just useful to estimate
e
heaating and cooling need
ds; they alsso help makke compariisons
betw
ween buildiings more fair.
f
A buillding in a mild
m climatte like San Francisco will
w need leess heating and
coolling energyy than a building in a cold
c
climatee like Mosccow, even iff the Mosco
ow buildingg is much better
buillt. Compariing the eneergy intensitties of diffeerent buildinngs with th
he heating and
a coolingg degree dayys at
each
h site helpss make these comparisons more accurate
a
reppresentations of how effficiently thhe buildingss are
desiigned.

Thiss graph from

m Montreal shows that in January there are allmost 800 heating degrree days to stay
com
mfortable
(Graaph from Eccotect)