Climate data - what metric describes "coldest temp. a few days in a row"?
Climate data - what metric describes "coldest temp. a few days in a row"?
(OP)
When designing biogas plants, One thing I want to know is the lowest temperature to size my heating for (so that at said temp. I get enough power into the substrate to compensate for losses through the tank walls). K Values etc. are all known.
To size my heating system I usually take the average from the coldest month and subtract another 10 - 15 °C (more in mountains and far inland, less if a plant is near a coast).
I don't care for short term cold-spike, I have tanks with 2-3000m³ mostly water, this is enough thermal mass that I don't worry about a cold night. But what common metric describes "the average over the coldest few days in a row in month x" that I can look up somewhere?
How have others solved this problem? Also, what climate databases do you use? I mostly used http://klimadiagramme.de/ so far (monthly averages and precipitation).
To size my heating system I usually take the average from the coldest month and subtract another 10 - 15 °C (more in mountains and far inland, less if a plant is near a coast).
I don't care for short term cold-spike, I have tanks with 2-3000m³ mostly water, this is enough thermal mass that I don't worry about a cold night. But what common metric describes "the average over the coldest few days in a row in month x" that I can look up somewhere?
How have others solved this problem? Also, what climate databases do you use? I mostly used http://klimadiagramme.de/ so far (monthly averages and precipitation).





RE: Climate data - what metric describes "coldest temp. a few days in a row"?
DFLOW:
http://water.epa.gov/scitech/datait/models/dflow/
Places to look for temperature data (at least for US):
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/nwis
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/
http://www.raws.dri.edu/
http://www.wunderground.com/