Classification and grouping of Brazilian cities in heating and cooling degrees-day: 1960 to 2013

Abstract Degree-days is commonly used worldwide to estimate buildings energy consumption due to heating and / or cooling. However, in Brazil, there is no a technical standard calculation method and / or a degree-days zoning. The database is composed by the Climatological Norms and monthly averages of the Meteorological Database for Teaching and Research of INMET. These data allow to evaluate the evolution of the climatic condition of the cities. This paper presents a proposal for calculating degree-days applicable throughout the country, and a national zoning resulting from this classification. The heating (GDA) and cooling degree-days (GDR) were calculated based on the methodology described by Day (2006) and the temperatures were defined based on the adaptive model proposed by De Dear and Brager (2002). The grouping of cities by GDA and GDR was carried out by the cluster statistical procedure named K-means (Bussab et al., 1990) and then the statistical significance of the clusters generated was verified by the Test F. As a result, was obtained a ranking of 291 cities by number of GDA and GDR and the grouping of these seven clusters. The F test performed was significant for the proposed zoning. Finally, the zoning maps were produced in Brazilian cities by demand for heating or cooling.