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Solar NIR
Modeling and Tools
Necessity of Solar NIR Data
Incoming solar radiation is a key factor influencing solar architecture design. It determines the thermal and optical regime of the building envelope and affects the solar heat and light transfer between the indoors and outdoors. Computational analysis is an essential tool in solar architecture design. Usually, an entire year’s weather data in a conventional weather file can be imported into such computational analyses. Solar irradiance data used in conventional solar architecture design analytics are broadband (the total of UV, VIS, and NIR); however, these three components play different roles in building energy efficiency.
With recent discoveries and engineering solutions emerging related to nanomaterials and nanostructures, independent band modulation of solar radiation on building envelopes (including glazing systems) has become increasingly viable as a potential means of improving building energy savings and indoor visual comfort. However, the meteorological data in conventional weather files do not normally include the spectral power distribution data of incident solar light because measuring the narrowband spectral distribution of sunlight is much more difficult and expensive than measuring broadband radiation (e.g., using pyranometers). As a consequence, there is a pressing need for reliable performance estimations of spectral solar radiation control and response on a building scale.
This research is to develop estimation models of the VIS and NIR components that can be captured efficiently from readily available datasets collected from the ground weather stations; such a model can then be conveniently implemented into current solar architecture design and research.
Online Weather Data Conversion
With this online processor, you can convert a typical weather file (CSV) into two separate weather files named solar NIR and VIS, respectively. Subsequently, you can use each file to simulate cases in which you only need solar visible or near-infrared portion. For instance, one can use a weather file with Solar NIR data to estimate the potential energy savings or impacts by modulating pure solar heat of a specific spectrally selective device using typical solar analysis software. Similarly, one can use a weather file with Solar VIS data to estimate daylighting benefits and electrical lighting energy use. Notably, if your research/design goal is to obtain thermal characteristics of the design, such as heating/cooling energy use, envelope surface temperature, etc., the original typical weather file still needs to be used. Please cite the publications below when you use this online weather data converter.
The link/portal to the weather file conversion is under Construction
Publications
Chen, S., Duan, Q., Feng, Y., & Wang, J. (2022). Reconstruction of solar visible and infrared irradiance using broadband solar radiation and weather data for building simulations. In Process.