Case 15

Airflow and Indoor Air Quality Models of DOE Prototype Commercial Buildings

[Lisa C. Ng, Amy Musser, Andrew K. Persily, Steven J. Emmerich]

A previous report, NIST Technical Note 1734, Airflow and Indoor Air Quality Models of DOE Reference Commercial Buildings detailed the CONTAM models of the 16 U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) reference commercial building models. DOE developed the EnergyPlus building models for use in assessing new technologies and supporting the development of energy codes in pursuing building energy efficiency improvements. The DOE commercial reference buildings were developed to represent buildings that were constructed before 1980, constructed between 1980-2003, and constructed in 2004. Since the release of the DOE reference building models, updates have been made by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) so that the modeled buildings comply with newer versions of ASHRAE Standard 90.1 Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings and the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). These building models are referred to as the “prototype” buildings, rather than the “reference” buildings. Thus, NIST Technical Note 1734 is updated in this report to reflect the changes to the CONTAM models to match the prototype buildings that comply with ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2013.

CONTAM Project Files 

Version 2 - Revision of CONTAM project files uploaded on 2023-04-24 in order to correct the HVAC return schedule of the office zones in the Large Office model.