Prototype Building Models

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) supports the development of commercial and residential 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.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) simulates energy savings associated with changes in energy codes and standards. This analysis is used by the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Energy Codes Program to evaluate published versions of the code, as well as in developing proposed code changes.

Commercial prototype building models

Residential prototype building models

Manufactured Housing prototype building models

Commercial

The suite of commercial prototype buildings covers 75% 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. As ASHRAE 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 19 climate locations (16 in the U.S. and 3 international locations) for recent editions of ASHRAE Standard 90.1 and IECC and versions following the methodology of Standard 90.1 Performance Rating Method (Appendix G). The current combination results in an overall set of 5,168 total building models (in EnergyPlus™ Version 22.1.0).

The zipped files in Tables 1, 2, and 3 contain downloadable prototype models in compressed, zip, format for the respective edition of ASHRAE Standard 90.1, ASHRAE 90.1 Appendix G, and IECC, respectively.  Each zipped file includes EnergyPlus model input files (.idf) and corresponding output files (.htm) across all climate locations, as well as a scorecard spreadsheet (Microsoft® Excel®, .xlsx, format). The scorecard summarizes the building descriptions, thermal zone internal loads, schedules, and other key modeling input information for all 16 prototype buildings.  The scorecard spreadsheet can be downloaded from this link . Table 3 contains the associated EnergyPlus TMY3 weather files for the 19 climate locations which can be downloaded from this zipped file.

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 from the tables below.

• Table 1: ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 Prototype Building Models
• Table 2: ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-Performance Rating Method (Appendix G) Prototype Building Models
• Table 3: IECC Prototype Building Models
• Table 4: TMY3 Weather Files

ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1

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ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-Appendix G Prototype Building Models

These prototypes are used to calculate Building Performance Factors (BPFs) for use with the Performance Rating Method of ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2016 though 2022. These prototypes are used to implement the new approach to calculating BPFs that follow the Appendix G baseline rules and include adjustments to the prototype models made after a specific code has been published. Those BPFs are therefore different than those published in ASHRAE Standard 90.1 2016-2022. This new approach is discussed in more detail in the PNNL Technical Support Document titled, "Commercial Building Prototypes Based on ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2019 Appendix G PRM".

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IECC

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TMY3 Weather Files

*Note: the following international weather data files are available through ASHRAE Weather Data Center

• VNM_Ho.Chi.Minh.City-Tan.Son.Nhat.Intl.AP.489000_IWEC2.epw
• ARE_Dubai.Intl.AP.411940_IWEC2.epw
• IND_Delhi_New.Delhi-Safdarjung.AP.421820_IWEC2.epw

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Residential

For residential buildings, PNNL uses two base prototypes to simulate the following building types:

1. Single-family detached house
2. Multi-family low-rise apartment building

These prototypes are then modified to accommodate four different heating system types and four foundation types typically found in new residential construction. The result is an expanded set of 32 models, which is then simulated across 18 climate locations for each edition of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). This combination results in a set of 3,552 residential energy models (in EnergyPlus™ Version 9.5).

The energy models for the 2015, 2018, and 2021 editions of the IECC are listed in Table 4. Each compressed (.zip) file includes EnergyPlus model input files (.idf) and corresponding output files (.htm) for each of the eight climate zones (1-8) and three moisture regimes (A=Moist, B=Dry, C=Marine) defined in the IECC.

Each file is assigned a unique name using the following naming convention:

Where,

XX = Prototype, either Multi-family (MF) or Single-family (SF)
CZ = Climate zone designator (e.g., CZ2B for climate zone 2, moisture regime B; CZ1AT for climate zone 1, moisture regime A, Tropical, CZ3AWH for climate zone 3, moisture regime A, Warm-Humid)
HeatingSystemType = One of four heating system types: Electric Resistance, Gas Furnace, Oil Furnace or Heat Pump
FoundationType = One of four Foundation types: slab, crawlspace, heated basement, unheated basement
IECC = International Energy Conservation Code
Year= Year of published Code

Downloads

The energy models for the 2015, 2018 and 2021 versions of the IECC are listed in Table 4 and can be downloaded either by specific IECC edition or as complete sets by climate zone. The complete sets contain prototypes with earlier versions of the IECC. The idf files may be opened and modified in EnergyPlus.

The single family prototypes are now complete EnergyPlus files utilizing the airflow network for duct leakage modeling. Previous single family prototype models posted on the Energy Codes website did not contain duct leakage specifications. Calculating loads for duct leakage required multiple EnergyPlus simulations with and without duct leakage and post processing the results for both single family and multifamily buildings. As a result, there may be large differences in energy consumption when comparing the latest single family prototypes results to older prototype results downloaded from this website. The multifamily prototype models do not contain duct leakage specifications, and the duct leakage adjustment are applied during the post-processing. We are working on updating the MF models to incorporate the airflow network with duct leakage loops.

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TMY3 Weather Files

The associated EnergyPlus TMY3 weather files for the 18 climate locations are available for download in Table 5.

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Manufactured Housing

For manufactured housing, PNNL uses two base prototypes to simulate the following manufactured housing configurations:

1. Single-section house
2. Multi-section house

The two building configurations are modified to accommodate four different heating system types typically found in new manufactured housing construction. The result is an expanded set of 8 models, which is then simulated across 19 climate locations for the HUD baseline code as well as the two tiers included in the DOE final rule pertaining to energy conservation standards for manufactured housing. This combination results in a set of 152 manufactured housing energy models (in EnergyPlus™ Version 8.0).

The energy models for the HUD, tier 1, and tier 2 of the final rule are listed in Table 6. Each compressed (.zip) file includes EnergyPlus model input files (.idf) and corresponding output files (.htm) for each of the nineteen climate locations list in Table 7 (as specified in Table 7.1 of the Manufactured Housing Technical Support Document).

Each file is assigned a unique name using the following naming convention:

XX_Climate City_CZ_Code Edition_HeatingSystemType

Where,

XX = Configuration, either Single-Section (SC) or Multi-Section (MS)
Climate City = The name of the representative 19 climate city as listed in Table 7.1 of the TSD (e.g., SanFrancisco for San Francisco, CA)
CZ = Climate zone designator (e.g., CZ3C for climate zone 3, moisture regime C)
Code Edition = The name of the energy code: HUD for the HUD baseline code, and FinalRule for the final rule which includes both tier 1 and tier 2 of the final rule.
HeatingSystemType = One of four heating system types: electricfurnace for Electric Resistance, gasfurnace for Gas Furnace, oilfurnace for Oil Furnace or heatpump for Heat Pump

For example, MS_Baltimore_4A_HUD_heatpump.idf is the model idf file for multi-section HUD baseline code with heat pump heating system type at climate zone 4A represented by the weather file at Baltimore. Similarly, SS_Atlanta_3A_tier1_gasfurnace.idf is the model idf file for single-section tier 1 of the final rule with gas furnace system type at climate zone 3A represented by the weather file at Atlanta.

Downloads

The energy models for the HUD and the final rule are listed in Table 6 and can be downloaded either by specific code edition (i.e., HUD or Final Rule) or as complete sets by either each of the climate zone (all rows beside the last row of Table 6) or all the climate zones (last row of Table 6). The idf files may be opened and modified in EnergyPlus.

The energy models posted do not contain separate models for assessing the impact of the duct leakage specifications. Calculating loads for duct leakage required multiple EnergyPlus simulations with and without duct leakage and post processing the results for the single-section and double-section buildings.

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TMY3 Weather Files

The associated EnergyPlus TMY3 weather files for the 19 climate locations are available for download in Table 7.