I’ll stop after this question.
Taunton has two books on energy efficiency by Joseph Lstiburek, Builder’s Guide to Cold Climates and Builder’s Guide to Mixed Climates. How do I find out what our average winter temperature is here in Baltimore? It usually gets above freezing during winter days, and it’s ungodly hot and humid in the summer — tropical!
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Those regions have been adjusted somewhat.
Check here http://www.buildingscience.com/housesthatwork/hygro-thermal.htm
There go here and look at the design in your region that matches what you want to do.
http://www.buildingscience.com/housesthatwork/default.htm
Very helpful. Thanks.
The gas company here prints the average temperature for the reading period on the bill. You do save all your utility bills, don't you? :o)
But if not, it looks like there are some fairly autoritative answers here.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=average+winter+temperature+baltimore
As a former Baltimoron I can definitely say that average temperature information is of limited value unless it is taken very near to where one is building. The temperatures in the city are way off the scale because there is very little vegetation and 90% of the buildings are red brick with flat-black tar roofs, and all the streets are asphalt with everything packed in tight. Then you have the humidity factor. Compare that to the airport where they likely measure the temperature, which is surrounded by vegetation and cools down rapidly at night. In the winter, many days are clear and sunny and there a thermal gain via sunlight is likely not reflected in the average temp.
Baltimore is definitely not a cold climate. The lowest temp I ever recall at the urban/suburban boundary was maybe 10 degrees, and each winter typically had maybe a week's worth of temps that went below freezing at night. As one moves into the burbs and out into the rural counties the average temp in the winter is probably 10 or more degrees cooler than the city, over a distance of maybe 20 miles.
I would focus on AC, dehumidification, and preventing heat penetration through windows/walls/and roof/attic rather than heating costs. I could pull the bills and check, but I'm sure we spent way more running multiple window AC units than we spent on gas for the furnace. In the basement I had a dehimidifier that ran 24/7 and I had to empty the tank twice a day during the summer. Maybe this explains why I live in an area where I now run a single window AC unit at night perhaps two weeks in the summer. ;-)
>> Maybe this explains why I live in an area where I now run a single window AC unit at night
>> perhaps two weeks in the summer.
Ditto that. I left College Park for the same reason.
So I should read the book for warm climates, with average winter temperatures over 45 degrees, supplemented by the info online at Building Sciences Corporation.
I did notice that USDA Zone 7 (warmer) takes a loop inland to include Baltimore City, but not the northern and western suburbs. The rivers and Bay may have something to do with that, as well.
Thanks.
look on the baltimore sun's weather page and it will show you heating degree days and a lot of other useful stuff -- at least Wash Post displays -- all the best -- dudley