Commercial Prototype Building Models

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) supports the development of commercial building energy codes and standards by participating in industry review and update processes, and providing technical analyses to support both published model codes and potential changes. DOE publishes its findings in an effort to ensure transparency in its support, and to make its analysis available for public review and use.

As part of DOE's support of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 and IECC, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) apply a suite of prototype buildings covering 80% of the commercial building floor area in the United States for new construction, including both commercial buildings and mid- to high-rise residential buildings, and across all U.S. climate zones. These prototype buildings–derived from DOE's Commercial Reference Building Models–cover all Reference Building types (with the exception of supermarkets), and also an additional prototype representing high-rise apartment buildings. As Standard 90.1 and IECC evolve, PNNL makes modifications to the commercial prototype building models, with extensive input from ASHRAE 90.1 Standing Standards Project Committee members and other building industry experts.

The prototype models include 16 commercial building types in 17 climate locations (across all 8 U.S. climate zones) for recent editions of Standard 90.1 and IECC. The current combination results in an overall set of 2,176 total building models (in EnergyPlus™ Version 8.0).

Tables 1 and 2 contain a scorecard for each prototype building. The scorecard is a spreadsheet (Microsoft® Excel®, .xls, format) that summarizes the building descriptions, thermal zone internal loads, schedules, and other key modeling input information. The suite of prototype models is available for download (compressed, .zip, format) for the respective edition of Standard 90.1 and IECC. Each file includes EnergyPlus model input files (.idf) and corresponding output files (.html) across all climate locations.

Downloads

Files may be downloaded either as complete packages, containing all building types, or by individual building type, either by specific Standard 90.1 or IECC editions or as complete sets.

ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 Prototype Building Models
IECC Prototype Building Models
TMY3 Weather Files

ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1

ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 Prototype Building Model Package (133 MB) Includes all prototype building models for recent editions of Standard 90.1, scorecards, and the complete set of EnergyPlus weather data (.epw).

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IECC

IECC Prototype Building Model Package (133 MB) Includes all prototype building models for recent editions of the IECC, scorecards, and the complete set of EnergyPlus weather data (.epw).

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TMY3 Weather Files

The associated EnergyPlus TMY3 weather files for the 17 climate locations are available for download in Table 3.

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PNNL has documented recent prototype model enhancements made through ongoing support for ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 and IECC. More detailed descriptions and applications of the prototype models are presented in the PNNL reports included on the Energy & Economic Analysis page. These reports further document the approach, methodology, and modeling strategy used to develop the prototype models and the resulting energy and cost savings.

For questions, please contact the Building Energy Codes Program help desk.

This material was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the United States Department of Energy, nor Battelle, nor any or their employees, nor any jurisdiction or organization that has cooperated in the development of these materials, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness or any information, apparatus, product, software, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.

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Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof, or Battelle Memorial Institute. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

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