Commercial Building Benchmarks Now Available
DOE, working with three national laboratories, has developed commercial
building benchmark models. These benchmark models are complete
descriptions of buildings for whole building energy analysis using
EnergyPlus
simulation program. There are 16 building types that represent
approximately 70% of the commercial buildings in the U.S., in each of 16
locations, representing all U.S. climate zones. Currently new
construction benchmarks are available -- based on ASHRAE Standard 90.1.
The benchmark files are available for:
Building Type Name Floor Area ft2 Number of Floors
Large office 498,590 12
Medium office 53,630 3
Small office 5,500 1
Warehouse 52,050 1
Stand-alone retail 24,690 1
Strip mall 22,500 1
Primary school 73,960 2
Secondary school 204,170 3
Supermarket 45,000 1
Fast food 2,500 1
Restaurant 5,500 1
Hospital 241,350 5
Outpatient health care 10,000 2
Small Hotel 43,200 2
Large Hotel 122,116 6
Midrise Apartment 33,600 4
Each Benchmark building is comprised of:
* An EnergyPlus
file (.idf)
* An html file showing the results from the EnergyPlus simulation
(.html)
* A scorecard that summarizes the inputs and results for each
location (.pdf)
* The EnergyPlus TMY2 weather file (.epw).
The benchmarks can either be downloaded by building type or by location.
The web page for the benchmarks:
http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/highperformance/benchmark.html
Commercial Building Team
DOE
