Commercial Reference Building: Large Office

Commercial reference buildings provide complete descriptions for whole building energy analysis using EnergyPlus (see "About EnergyPlus" resource link) simulation software. Included here is data pertaining to the reference building type "Large Office" for each of the 16 climate zones described on the Wiki page (see "OpenEI Wiki Page for Commercial Reference Buildings" resource link), and each of three construction categories: new (2004) construction, post-1980 construction existing buildings, and pre-1980 construction existing buildings.

The dataset includes four key components: building summary, zone summary, location summary and a picture. Building summary includes details about: form, fabric, and HVAC. Zone summary includes details such as: area, volume, lighting, and occupants for all types of zones in the building. Location summary includes key building information as it pertains to each climate zone, including: fabric and HVAC details, utility costs, energy end use, and peak energy demand.

In total, DOE developed 16 reference building types that represent approximately 70% of commercial buildings in the U.S.; for each type, building models are available for each of the three construction categories. The commercial reference buildings (formerly known as commercial building benchmark models) were developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in conjunction with three of its national laboratories.

Additional data is available directly from DOE's Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) website (see "About Commercial Buildings" resource link), including EnergyPlus software input files (.idf) and results of the EnergyPlus simulations (.html).

Note: There have been many changes and improvements since this dataset was released. Several revisions have been made to the models and moved to a different approach to representing typical building energy consumption. For current data on building energy consumption please see the ComStock resource below.