MODEL OF CALCULATION OF MONTHLY DEGREE-DAYS FOR COOLING AND HEATING AT ANY BASE TEMPERATURE, FOR ENERGY APPLICATIONS

Abstract

The degrees-day, represent a very versatile indicator, used in applications such as: bioclimatic architecture, estimation of agricultural yields of sugar cane and other crops, energy management in industrial and tertiary sector, etc. For energy applications in industry and the tertiary sector, the most commonly used models are the calculation of monthly degrees-day of heating and cooling at any base temperature. All models published use as calculation variables: the mean monthly temperature and the standard deviation of the average daily temperatures in the month. The use of this last parameter introduces some disadvantages that limit its application. In this work, a model was developed for the calculation of degrees-day of monthly heating and cooling at any base temperature, which use for calculation, parameters or climatological normals such as: the mean monthly temperature, the maximum temperature, the minimum temperature, the average daily temperatures and the parameter Z, defined by the authors. The model allows the calculation of degrees-day, with accuracy comparable to the same obtained by other methods, eliminates the disadvantages of using the standard deviation as the input parameter and typifies the results for a specific period of time.