Cooling degree days

The cooling degree days index represents a proxy for the energy demand for cooling buildings. It is computed from the outdoor air temperature as cumulated daily deviation above a given base temperature threshold from April to September (see the ETC-CCA Technical Paper for details). The temperature threshold, period and formulation of this index can vary according to the local climate and applications. A base temperature of 22 °C is considered here as representative for assessing the energy demand at the pan-European scale and daily minimum, mean and maximum temperature values are used as input ECVs.