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Commercial Reference Building: Medium Office

Publicly accessible License 

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 "Medium 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.

About Commercial Reference Buildings

Information pertaining to the commercial reference buildings. Includes links to new, pre-1980, and post 1980 construction reference buildings. Also outlines the sixteen... more

About EnergyPlus

EERE webpage about the EnergyPlus project, impacts, and more resources.

ComStock

Website for ComStock: highly granular modeling of the U.S. commercial building stock.

Commercial Reference Buildings Technical Report

NREL technical report on the Commercial Reference Buildings project.

Medium Office Reference New Construction.xlsx

Includes data about the construction, energy use, utility cost, and other building energy attributes for a reference full service restaurant with new (2004) constructio... more
9

Medium Office Reference Post-1980 Construction.xlsx

Includes data about the construction, energy use, utility cost, and other building energy attributes for a reference full service restaurant with post-1980 construction... more
9

Medium Office Reference Pre-1980 Construction.xlsx

Includes data about the construction, energy use, utility cost, and other building energy attributes for a reference full service restaurant with pre-1980 construction ... more
7

OpenEI Wiki Page for Commercial Reference Buildings

OpenEI Wiki Page for commercial reference buildings detailing building types and the climate zones used to create reference buildings.

Citation Formats

TY - DATA AB - 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 "Medium 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. AU - Deru, Michael A2 - Field, Kristin A3 - Studer, Daniel A4 - Benne, Kyle A5 - Griffith, Brent A6 - Torcellini, Paul A7 - Liu, Bing A8 - Halverson, Mark A9 - Winiarski, Dave A10 - Rosenberg, Michael A11 - Yazdanian, Mehry A12 - Huang, Joe A13 - Crawley, Drury DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI) DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory DO - KW - DOE KW - buildings KW - commercial buildings KW - energy use KW - office KW - building KW - commercial KW - reference KW - HVAC KW - usage KW - energy KW - pre-1980 KW - post-1980 KW - utility KW - utility cost KW - occupancy KW - building type KW - size KW - climate zone KW - energy efficiency KW - building efficiency KW - EnergyPlus KW - Simulation KW - model KW - baseline KW - medium office KW - benchmark KW - energy demand KW - processed data LA - English DA - 2014/11/25 PY - 2014 PB - National Renewable Energy Laboratory T1 - Commercial Reference Building: Medium Office UR - https://data.openei.org/submissions/160 ER -
Export Citation to RIS
Deru, Michael, et al. Commercial Reference Building: Medium Office. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 25 November, 2014, Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://data.openei.org/submissions/160.
Deru, M., Field, K., Studer, D., Benne, K., Griffith, B., Torcellini, P., Liu, B., Halverson, M., Winiarski, D., Rosenberg, M., Yazdanian, M., Huang, J., & Crawley, D. (2014). Commercial Reference Building: Medium Office. [Data set]. Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). National Renewable Energy Laboratory. https://data.openei.org/submissions/160
Deru, Michael, Kristin Field, Daniel Studer, Kyle Benne, Brent Griffith, Paul Torcellini, Bing Liu, Mark Halverson, Dave Winiarski, Michael Rosenberg, Mehry Yazdanian, Joe Huang, and Drury Crawley. Commercial Reference Building: Medium Office. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, November, 25, 2014. Distributed by Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://data.openei.org/submissions/160
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_160, title = {Commercial Reference Building: Medium Office}, author = {Deru, Michael and Field, Kristin and Studer, Daniel and Benne, Kyle and Griffith, Brent and Torcellini, Paul and Liu, Bing and Halverson, Mark and Winiarski, Dave and Rosenberg, Michael and Yazdanian, Mehry and Huang, Joe and Crawley, Drury}, abstractNote = {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 "Medium 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.}, url = {https://data.openei.org/submissions/160}, year = {2014}, howpublished = {Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI), National Renewable Energy Laboratory, https://data.openei.org/submissions/160}, note = {Accessed: 2025-05-17} }

Details

Data from Nov 25, 2014

Last updated Apr 10, 2025

Submitted Nov 25, 2014

Organization

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Contact

Commercial Reference Buildings

referencebuildings@nrel.gov

Authors

Michael Deru

National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL

Kristin Field

National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL

Daniel Studer

National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL

Kyle Benne

National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL

Brent Griffith

National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL

Paul Torcellini

National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL

Bing Liu

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Mark Halverson

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Dave Winiarski

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Michael Rosenberg

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Mehry Yazdanian

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory LBNL

Joe Huang

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory LBNL

Drury Crawley

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Rene...

Research Areas

DOE Project Details

Project Name Commercial Reference Building Models

Project Number 19987

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