weathermen refer to this term , such as, there were 21 heating degree days today.
2007-02-27 00:21:25 · 2 answers · asked by charliefoye 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
A heating degree day is described as one degree Fahrenheit below 65 degrees on a single day. For example, if the high for the day is 70 degrees and the low is 50, then the average is 60. That is 5 degrees below 65, so the number of heating degree days is 5. If then the next day the high is 56 and the low is 28, then the average is 42. 65 - 42 = 23, so the second day has 23 degree days. If then it goes the next day to 85 degrees, with a low of 51 degrees, then the mean is 68 degrees, which is bigger than 65 degrees. Therefore there are 0 heating degree days for that day. So for the 3 days together, there were 5+23+0 = 28 heating degree days.
The number of kilowatt hours that your house consumes is dependent on the number of degrees. The higher the number of degrees, the higher the number of kilowatt hours or cubic feet used. I used a least squares fit on my home data and found that my usage of gas is 50+17D cubic feet, where D is the number of degree days. So if the average temperature is 30 degrees, there are 35 degree days, so I use 545 cubic feet.
There are also cooling degree days, defined as the difference in the other direction from 65. If the high is 85 and the low is 67, then the average is 76, and 76 - 65 = 11 cooling degree days.
2007-02-27 12:28:14 · answer #1 · answered by alnitaka 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Quantitative index demonstrated to reflect demand for energy to heat or cool your home or office, derived from daily temperature observations calculated over a period of time .
2007-02-27 08:27:43 · answer #2 · answered by Dice 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋