Resources
This section provides tutorials, how-to guides explanations and reference material designed to aid users in answering questions about the ComStock dataset.
Tutorials
This section provides lessons for understanding certain capabilities and functions of ComStock, as well as for learning a specific analysis skill.
- Joining data from an external dataset to ComStock using geospatial fields
- Perform an analysis by blending ComStock and local data
How-to Guides
This section provides a collection of step-by-step guides for using the ComStock dataset to answer a given question.
- Access the ComStock datasets programmaticallyUPDATE
- Filter the building characteristics dashboard for a county
- Perform a basic commercial building stock segmentation analysis in Excel
- Perform a commercial building stock characterization and upgrades impact analysis in ExcelNEW
- Understand the annual energy use by building type for a city
Explanations
These documents provide explanations focusing on the how and why of various parts of the ComStock data sets. While this section does not provide explicit advice on how to achieve a specific outcome, the documentation here will help users understand specific and important aspects the data sets. If while using ComStock there are aspects of the data sets that seem counterintuitive and / or confusing, please email us to recommend an additional piece of explanation documentation.
General
- Building Type Crosswalks
- Considerations for ComStock Calibration, Validation, and Uncertainty
- Geographic Fields and Codes
- New ComStock Sampling MethodNEW
- Sampling and Weighting in ComStock
- Using ComStock to Analyze Cost
- Why Individual ComStock Measure Results Should Not Be Combined
ComStock Limitations
- Building Types Not Included in ComStock
- Gas Consumption Underrepresented
- Sample Size ConsiderationsUPDATE
Known Issues
- California Models Known Issues
- Utility Bill and Emissions in 2024 Release 2
- Metadata and Annual Results Aggregate File Discrepancy in 2024 Release 2
Training VideosNEW
Webinars, presentations, and guidance on the ComStock and ResStock datasets—including training videos on accessing the datasets, using the Data Viewer, and more—are available on NREL’s Building Stock Analysis YouTube channel. See below for a sample of available videos. For the full collection, visit the YouTube channel.
- End-Use Load Profiles Dataset Access Demonstration
- Loading End-Use Saving Shapes Data into AWS Athena
Tableau DashboardsNEW
The ComStock Tableau Public page offers interactive visualizations derived from the public ComStock datasets. These visualizations provide insights into building characteristics, energy consumption patterns, and the potential impacts of energy efficiency measures across various building types and geographic regions. See below for a sample of available dashboards. Additional dashboards will be posted to the ComStock Tableau Public page as they become available.
For ResStock Tableau dashboards, please visit the ResStock Tableau Public page.
References
These documents describe various aspects of ComStock, including the baseline and upgrade model documentation, as well as geographic clustering methodology.
ComStock Reference Documentation
This document serves as a guide to and resource for the methodology and assumptions behind ComStock. The Reference Documentation will be updated as major changes to the baseline models are incorporated.
| Reference Documentation Version | Release Date | Corresponding ComStock Dataset Release(s) |
|---|---|---|
| ComStock Reference Documentation: 2024 Release 2 | Feb. 2025 | 2024/comstock_amy2018_release_2 |
| ComStock Reference Documentation: 2024 Release 1 | May 2024 | 2024/comstock_amy2018_release_1 |
| ComStock Reference Documentation: Version 1 | March 2023 | 2023/comstock_amy2018_release_1 2023/comstock_amy2018_release_2 |
Upgrade Measures
The measure documentation describes the modeling methodology, assumptions, relevant ComStock baseline features, and observations from results.
Geographic Clustering Reference Documentation
These documents provide reference documentation for the clustering methodology developed by ComStock. The clustering algorithm described in this technical report resulted in 88 clusters across the United States. The clusters are used as the geographic basis for the “U.S. Building Stock Segmentation Series” published by DOE’s Building Technologies Office. This series will provide geographically relevant insight into building stock characteristics, energy and emissions performance, and, eventually, common end use technologies. The cluster definitions file maps counties to building stock segmentation clusters.
Building Stock Segmentation Cluster Development
June 2023
Building Stock Segmentation Cluster Definitions
July 2023
Building Stock Segmentation
This document discusses the development of a segmentation approach for the U.S. commercial building stock that focuses on identifying similarities. The resulting nine-segment approach primarily uses similarities in heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems, service water heating systems, and the presence of cooking equipment to separate buildings into categories.
Commercial Building Stock Segmentation
May 2024