Cooling
Degree-Days
are |
The amount of refrigeration
required to keep a house cool in the summer depends upon how hot it is
outside (but more specifically, how much hotter it is outside than inside)
and the length of time it lasts. If the outdoor temperature is over
65 degrees (F), then some cooling is required. An average temperature
of 75 degrees for one day adds 10 degree-days to the total.
Over the US as a whole, the number of cooling degree-days (d-d) is normally 1193. New England averages 421 d-d, and the west-south-central section averages 2460 d-d. In almost all regions of the country, the 30-year d-d normals are higher than the d-d of either 1996 or 1997, the most recent years tabulated by the Energy Information Agency. For the US as a whole, 1995 was the year with the highest d-d total (1,344), and 1976 was the year with the lowest (1,029). That is, the recent summers have been cooler than the average. Must be global warming. Data from: Annual Energy Review 1997, (U.S. Energy Information Agency ODE/EIA-0384(97) ) |
