Energy Design Tools

Climate Consultant is a simple to use, graphic-based computer program that helps architects, builders, contractor, homeowners, and students understand their local climate. It uses annual 8760 hour EPW format climate data that is made available at no cost by the Department of Energy for thousands of weather stations around the world. Climate Consultant translates this raw climate data into dozens of meaningful graphic displays.

The purpose is not simply to plot climate data, but rather to organize and represent this information in easy-to-understand ways that show the subtle attributes of climate, and its impact on built form. The goal is to help users create more energy efficient, more sustainable buildings, each of which is uniquely suited to its particular spot on this planet.

The Psychrometric Chart shown to the left is one of the more advanced features available in Climate Consultant. Each dot on the chart represents the temperature and humidity of each of the 8760 hours per year. Different Design Strategies are represented by specific zones on this chart. The percentage of hours that fall into each of the 16 different Design Strategy Zones gives a relative idea of the most effective passive heating or passive cooling strategies. Climate Consultant analyzes the distribution of this psychrometric data in each Design Strategy zone in order to create a unique list of Design Guidelines for a particular location.

If you wish to work with the full desktop or laptop version of Climate Consultant, select the appropriate installation version on the download page:

Climate Consultant Download Page

Climate Consultant Overview Tutorial (~10 min.) authored by Carmen Trudell

Climate Consultant Advanced Tutorial (~12 min.) authored by Carmen Trudell