Hi Samah,

It's true there are many methods and approaches to benchmarking, but what the 'best method to use is' depends largely upon what you are trying to do.  For example are you intending to compare the predictions from building performance simulations or actual monitored data gathered from a real building.  

In the UK we often compare a building's energetic performance to what a 'notional building' built to the current Building Regulations (Part L) might  achieve. We also compare to advanced performance (or best practice) standards such as the international Passivhaus standard or near Zero Energy Building performance standards when assessing whether a building is energy efficient or not.

When you are benchmarking anything one of the important things is to make sure you are comparing 'apples with apples'. By that I mean making sure that you have normalised as many of the uncertainties and assumptions as possible, as most standards and software tools use different assumptions and methodologies, making intermodel comparisons difficult.  

None of the above standards really consider wider sustainability issues however, so if you want to consider these factors in your benchmarking you might want to look at the various BREEAM and LEED standards etc. or even develop your own. 

For more information on some of the above issues in practice you might like to read my paper 'An investigation into recent proposals for a revised definition of zero carbon homes in the UK' - available from either of the links below:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512002017

http://eprints.brighton.ac.uk/14958/1/InvestigationRevisedDefinitionZeroCarbonUK_120227_RM_%28Converis%29.pdf

Hope that helps

Rob

What do you mean exactly by "benchmarking"? Establishing a baseline, such as for IPMVP purposes?

Well, if you are looking for the energy performance and consumption for different building types (e.g. residential, commercial, public spaces), you may refer to the attached articles.

If you are looking at the baseline of how an energy efficient building should perform, you may refer to the Green Building Rating Tools (e.g. LEED, GBI, GreenStar, Green Mark). For example, in the GreenRE, a green building rating tool being practiced in Malaysia, there is a calculation of OTTV and RTTV, as well as the specified minimum requirements for performance of an air-conditioned building.