Climate data tool for the southern hemisphere
This tool and description is valid for PHPP version 9 (and earlier).
When using the PHPP in the Southern Hemisphere, all climate data must first be manipulated in order to deal with a few Northern Hemisphere biases in the PHPP.
1. The PHPP assumes that the warmest period of the year occurs from June to August.
- Therefore, the data for the first half of the year, January through June (months 1 to 6), must be placed in the July through December fields (months 7 through 12) and vice versa for the data from the second half of the year.
2. The PHPP assumes that main solar radiation is coming from the South.
- Therefore, the radiation data must be entered mirrored at the equatot, so that radiation coming from the North is placed in the field for South radiation and vice versa.
- Due to this change, the wall and window areas must also be adjusted so that areas facing North are entered as if they were facing South and vice versa. Note: This is relatively easy with areas facing either directly North or directly South, but becomes more difficult when, for example, a wall is positioned 30° from North (in this case, a 150° must be used for PHPP). The equation for the conversion is simply: 180° - X° actual deviation from North of the building. To reduce this risk of errors, it is recommended to flip the plans along the x axis with the use of CAD or a similar program.
In order to spare users the complex task of entering these changes manually, the Passive House Institute has developed a climate data tool for the adaptation of the relevant data to the Southern Hemisphere.
These conversion is no longer required as of PHPP version 10. With the PHPP upgrade, buildings can be entered with their actual orientation and there is no need to adapt the climate data. A separate tool is provided for climate data conversion between PHPP version 9 and version 10.
Download the tool here.