Best practice reporting guideline for building stock energy models

Abstract

Buildings are responsible for 38% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, therefore, pathways to reduce their impact are crucial to achieve climate targets. Building stock energy models (BSEMs) have long been used as a tool to assess the current and future energy demand and environmental impact of building stocks. BSEMs have become more and more complex and are often tailored to case-specific datasets, which results in a high degree of heterogeneity among models. This heterogeneity, together with a lack of consistency in the reporting hinders the understanding of these models and, thereby, an accurate interpretation and comparison of results. In this paper we present a reporting guideline in order to improve reporting practices of BSEMs. The guideline was developed by experts as part of the IEA's Annex 70 and builds upon reporting guidelines from other fields. It consists of five topics (Overview, Model Components, Input and Output, Quality Assurance and Additional Information), which are further subdivided into subtopics. We explain which model aspects should be described in each subtopic, and provide illustrative examples on how to apply the guideline. In closing, the reporting guideline is consistent with the model classification framework and online model registry also developed in the Annex.