Program Name or Ancillary Texteere.energy.gov BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES PROGRAM Benchmark Buildings & Models: Concept & Structure Dru Crawley, Ph.D. U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy January 24, 2010

Building Energy Use

Commercial Buildings’ Energy Share Commercial buildings account for: –18% of U.S. energy –18% of greenhouse gas emissions (~1,000 MMT of CO 2 e) –slightly less than India’s entire energy consumption and GHG emissions

Commercial Square Footage Projections Source: EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2009, Table Minus ~16B ft. 2 demolitions 104 Plus ~38B ft. 2 new additions

Simulation in Low-Energy Building Research In DOE’s low-energy building research, simulation has been critical for designing and operating buildings to support decision-making But we need ‘benchmark’ models to represent new and existing buildings for research and technology evaluation.

Solution: Benchmark Building Models Well documented—all inputs necessary to determine building operating energy performance are shown in Scorecard (spreadsheet which lists the individual inputs along with the source for the information). Currently available… models representing 80% of commercial building floor area… Soon … recent and older existing buildings, , versions Continuous improvement: –Updates to current simulation versions –New information, detailed end-uses from monitoring research

Benchmark Buildings NREL, PNNL, and LBNL developed benchmark buildings –Set of standardized buildings that can be used as a code-compliant starting point –Can be used for sector analysis (building stock weights) –Can be used to set performance targets by specific climate or other parameters (covers all climate zones) –Can be used to show progress toward goals

Simulation Models Benchmark models available in EnergyPlus input format along with summary results EnergyPlus: fully integrated building, envelope, HVAC, water, and renewables simulation program, available free at

Thanks! Questions? Drury Crawley U.S. Department of Energy Commercial Building Initiative commercialbuildings.energy.gov EnergyPlus energyplus.gov