Dry-bulb temperature analyses for climate change at three UK sites in relation to the forthcoming CIBSE Guide to weather and solar data

Abstract

This paper details some important aspects of the forthcoming CIBSE Guide to weather and solar data. This is intended as a key aid to the design of comfortable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly buildings, especially through the provision of recent hourly weather data for use in simulation. This should help building services engineers and other building design professionals meet the challenge of designing buildings which have little or no air-conditioning, and which use natural ventilation and natural lighting to the full. Source data for the forthcoming Guide are explored further in this paper. For 3 key UK sites, winters have become milder and summers warmer over the last 36 years, although the evidence does not have the same statistical significance for all parts of the country. However, the trends are compatible with the scenarios for climates in the 2020s and 2050s indicated in the 1996 UK Department of the Environment report on Climate Change Impacts.