A novel approach to develop climate classification based on degree days and building energy performance

The degree days (DD) approach is one of the most extensively used methods for building-oriented climate zoning. However, DD only provides a limited view of the influence of climatic conditions in buildings, and when combined with building energy simulation, this limitation is minimized. In this study, a novel approach for the establishment of climate zones was proposed. The introduced climate classification was based on CDD, HDD, and building energy performance. For analysis, 90 cities were selected from 18 climate zones of the world. DD were calculated and compared using hourly data weather files of two different periods of record: 2004–2018 and 2016–2020. Comparative analysis of four different DD calculation methods (ASHRAE, UKMO, Hitchin, Schoenau and Kehrig) was done by evaluating the percentage difference of each approach from the mean daily degree hours method. Next, the patterns of DD and building energy performance were evaluated. Based on the DD and energy consumption patterns, a novel approach to climate classification was presented where the selected cities demonstrated unsystematic DD and energy consumption results. This study concludes that, under the proposed classification, several places belonging to the same climatic zone display consistent DD patterns and building energy performance for an individual building.