Generating reference years of representative cities with typical climate features for the hygrothermal simulation in China

Numerous buildings face moisture-related problems due to exposure to fluctuating heat and moisture loads. Climate data are essential for assessing the hygrothermal performance of buildings. This paper generates typical climate data as Hygrothermal Reference Years (HRYs), covering 8,760 h in six cities with the typical climate characteristics in China. The climate data include dry-bulb temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, precipitation, wind speed, and wind direction. The selected climate data is based on at least ten years of records, with minimal missing data in each year from 2000 to 2017. Continuous missing data less than six hours are interpolated. The weighting factors used to determine the selection priority of parameters are assessed via Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Frequency distribution (FD) ranges are compared to select HRYs. These HRYs are then compared with long-term data through cumulative frequency analysis. Both HRYs and long-term data spanning over ten years, as well as Typical Meteorological Years (TMYs), are input into the hygrothermal simulation of buildings. The results show that HRYs correspond well with long-term data, but differ from TMYs for simulation cases in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, highlighting their reliability and importance.