Do you know what do heating cooling degree weather forecasts mean? Degree days refer to a special kind of weather report which is created on the basis of the calculations obtained by reading outside air temperature. For this purpose, heating degree days and cooling degree days are considered while calculating the outside air temperature. These calculations are done to understand the amount of energy that is required for heating or cooling buildings. To get a clear idea of this, let’s take a look at the descriptions given below.
What do heating degree days & cooling degree days mean?
To begin with, heating degree days is a measurement of outside air temperature in order to get an idea about the amount of energy that is required to heat buildings. Similarly, cooling degree days help you determine the amount of energy that will be required to cool buildings. In heating degree days, minimum temperature for the day till a certain level is observed, whereas in cooling degree days, higher temperature of outside air temperature for the day till a certain level is observed. While calculating both these, the duration of the noted temperature is also taken into account.
How to calculate heating degree days & cooling degree days?
In order to determine the heating degree days for a specific day, you would need to find out the average temperature of the day by adding high and low temperatures on that day. After addition, you would have to divide the total derived value by 2. If the result is above 65, it means no heating degree days for the day. However, if it is below 65, you would need to minus the resulting number from 65. This will finally give you an idea of the heating degree days.
For instance, if the high temperature for the day is 55 and low temperature 45, the average temperature is 50 degrees. Since this number is less than 65 degrees, you would have to do subtraction here which means 65 – 50 = 15. It means the result is 15 heating degree days.
Similar is the formula for getting cooling degree days. However, there is a slight variation. In this case, you will need to subtract the number if it’s more than 65 unlike heating cooling days where you subtracted the number less than 65. For instance, if the high temperature for the day is 90 and low temperature for the same day is 70, it means the average temperature is 80. Now, since the obtained number is more than 65, you will subtract 65 from 80, which comes to 15 cooling degree days.
With the help of heating cooling degree weather forecasts, you can calculate the amount of money you would need to spend on air conditioning or heating your home when you relocate to some other place of your country or to another.
