Talk:Heating degree day

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There are more differences between US and UK practice than just the Fahrenheit/Celsius dichotomy. In the US, for heating degree days, the daily temperature deficit is always just the simple difference between mean and base temperatures. In UK practice, different formulae are used when the maximum, mean, or minimum temperature respectively exceed the base temperature (similar considerations apply to cooling degree days).

Another issue is the choice of base temperature. UK conventions for heating are 18.5, 15.5 and 10.0 Celsius, while cooling figures are customarily published to bases of 15.5 and 5.0 Celsius. Other countries have their own conventions.

Incidentally I think there is a mistake in the article regarding temperature conversion. Because degree days are accumulated temperature differences we only need to scale them by 5/9 or 9/5. No need to worry about the 32 F Vilnis 22:06, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Vilnis 18:43, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Agreed on the formula, I went ahead and changed it.--76.10.128.59 (talk) 08:31, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I think the formula example for HDD is a bit hard to follow. Though it is correct, it doesn't seem to convey the fact that you're working with a difference. (18 - 4) + (18 - (-2)) + (18 - (-4)) seems much clearer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.91.212.100 (talk) 19:59, 8 January 2008 (UTC)