Show/Hide Toolbars

HOMER Grid 1.1

Navigation: Design > Electric Load

OpenEI Load Profiles

Scroll Prev Top Next More

HOMER Logo

icons8-electrical-threshold-512


You can download load profiles from Open Energy Information (OpenEI). On the Set Up page for either Electric Load , click the Download button under Access the OpenEI Database for electrical load profiles.

hgrid_openei

Based on the location defined on the Home page, the load options for within 320km of the chosen location appear in the pop-up window.  

Tip: You must select a location in the US before you can see your location-specific load profile options.

OpenEI, with funding from the Department of Energy, developed 16 reference building types for each of 16 locations, which represent all U.S. climate zones.

BUILDING TYPE NAME

FLOOR AREA (FT2)

NUMBER OF FLOORS

Large Office

498,588

12

Medium Office

53,628

3

Small Office

5,500

1

Warehouse

52,045

1

Stand-alone Retail

24,962

1

Strip Mall

22,500

1

Primary School

73,960

1

Secondary School

210,887

2

Supermarket

45,000

1

Quick Service Restaurant

2,500

1

Full Service Restaurant

5,500

1

Hospital

241,351

5

Outpatient Health Care

40,946

3

Small Hotel

43,200

4

Large Hotel

122,120

6

Midrise Apartment

33,740

4

Source: https://energy.gov/eere/buildings/commercial-reference-buildings

These 16 building types represent approximately 70% of commercial buildings in the US, according to this NREL report: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy11osti/46861.pdf

The 16 climate zones used to create the reference buildings are:

CLIMATE ZONE

REPRESENTATIVE CITY

1A

Miami, Florida

2A

Houston, Texas

2B

Phoenix, Arizona

3A

Atlanta, Georgia

3B-Coast

Los Angeles, California

3B

Las Vegas, Nevada

3C

San Francisco, California

4A

Baltimore, Maryland

4B

Albuquerque, New Mexico

4C

Seattle, Washington

5A

Chicago, Illinois

5B

Boulder, Colorado

6A

Minneapolis, Minnesota

6B

Helena, Montana

7

Duluth, Minnesota

8

Fairbanks, Alaska

Source: https://energy.gov/eere/buildings/commercial-reference-buildings

The following is a map with climatic zones in the USA.

map

Source: https://energy.gov/eere/buildings/building-america-climate-specific-guidance

The source of this data is OpenEI, through the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) and the Department of Energy (DOE). This data is provided as is and neither OpenEI nor HOMER Energy offers any guarantees regarding its accuracy.

Tip: If you want to use one of these load profiles, but your site location is outside of the US:

1.On the Home page, choose a location in the US with similar climate conditions.

2.Under Electric Load #1, select the facility profile that you want to model.

3.  On the Home page, correct your location.

4.  Download your resources and continue modeling.

 

Further information regarding the methodology of how these load profiles were defined can be found at: https://energy.gov/eere/buildings/commercial-reference-buildings

The data is downloadable at: http://en.openei.org/datasets/dataset/commercial-and-residential-hourly-load-profiles-for-all-tmy3-locations-in-the-united-states/resource/b341f6c6-ab5a-4976-bd07-adc68a2239c4

Further documentation regarding this data set can be found at: http://en.openei.org/datasets/dataset/commercial-and-residential-hourly-load-profiles-for-all-tmy3-locations-in-the-united-states

 

The Homer Support site has a searchable knowledgebase and additional support options. HOMER Online contains the latest information on model updates, as well as sample files, resource data, and contact information. ©2017 HOMER Energy, LLC