Prototype Commercial Buildings for Energy and Sustainability Assessment: Whole Building Energy Simulation Design

Energy efficiency requirements in current commercial building energy codes vary across states, and most states have not yet adopted the newest energy standards. Energy standards currently adopted by states range across all editions of ASHRAE 90.1 (-1999, -2001, -2004, and -2007). Some states do not have a code requirement for energy efficiency, leaving it up to the locality or jurisdiction to set their own requirements. The Applied Economics Office in NIST’s Engineering Laboratory has developed an extensive database that allows energy efficiency and sustainability comparisons of alternative building designs based on different editions of ASHRAE Standard 90.1. The expansive database is a compilation of multiple data sources, including results from 13 680 whole building energy simulations for 12 commercial building types in 228 cities across all U.S. states, building construction cost databases, energy cost data collected from the Energy Information Administration, and emissions data collected from the Environmental Protection Agency. This report documents the whole building energy simulation designs for the prototype commercial buildings used in this building energy efficiency and sustainability database.