Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey

"The U.S. Energy Information Administration's Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) is the only nationally representative source of statistical information on energy-related characteristics, consumption, and expenditures for the nation's 5.6 million commercial buildings totaling 87 billion square feet of floor space.Building characteristics information from the 2012 survey is being released in stages through the spring, and consumption and expenditures data will follow later in the year..."
Buildings energy consumption

How much do you consume

"Explaining how much someone spends on residential and transportation energy is straightforward; you see it every month in your bills. But understanding how much you use is a more complicated concept.

For instance, if I told you that you used 149 million British Thermal Units (Btu) of energy last year on transportation, you would probably be left scratching your head. Just how much energy is in a Btu? How does that compare to more meaningful measures?

But what if I told you that your personal energy consumption needs would require the equivalent of 15,000 pounds of coal to be burned every year? I bet you could picture it a bit better.

We’ve selected a few measures that we think make more sense than “Btu” -- and that we hope will help you understand how much energy you consume. We define total per capita consumption as someone’s combined transportation and residential energy consumption. Learn more about the methodology for that calculation here..."

Energy consumption

Residential Energy Consumption Survey

"Total U.S. energy consumption in homes has remained relatively stable for many years as increased energy efficiency has offset the increase in the number and average size of housing units, according to the latest results from the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). The average household consumed 90 million British thermal units (Btu) in 2009, based on RECS data. This continues the downward trend in average per-household energy consumption of the last 30 years. Improvements in efficiency for space heating, air conditioning, and major appliances have all led to decreased consumption per household, despite increases in the number of homes, the average size of homes, and the use of electronics..."

How can we compare or add up our energy consumption?

"In American households we use several kinds of energy. It's difficult to add up or compare the total energy we use because each energy source is typically measured in a different unit: gasoline is usually measured in gallons, electricity in kilowatthours, and natural gas in cubic feet. One way to add and compare different energy sources is to convert them all to a common unit of measure based on their energy content..."

BLUEPRINT FOR A SECURE ENERGY FUTURE
"Rising prices at the pump affect everybody – workers and farmers; truck drivers and restaurant owners. Businesses see it impact their bottom line. Families feel the pinch when they fill up their tank. For Americans already struggling to get by, it makes life that much harder. Demand for oil in countries like China and India is only growing, and the price of oil will continue to rise with it. That’s why we need to make ourselves more secure and control our energy future by harnessing all of the
resources that we have available and embracing a diverse energy portfolio.

Every president since Richard Nixon has called for America’s independence from oil, but Washington gridlock has prevented action again and again. If we want to create a more secure energy future, and protect consumers at the pump, that has to change. When President Obama took office, America imported 11 million barrels of oil a day. Today, he pledged that by a little more than a decade from now, we will have cut that by one-third, and put forward a plan to secure America’s energy future by producing more oil at home and reducing our dependence on oil by leveraging cleaner, alternative fuels and greater efficiency..."

Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption
"Although no one building type dominates the commercial buildings sector, office buildings are the most common and account for more than 800,000 buildings or 17 percent of total commercial buildings. Offices comprised more than 12 billion square feet of floorspace, 17 percent of total commercial floorspace, the most of any building type.

Types of Office Buildings

The 2003 CBECS Detailed Tables present data for office buildings along with other principal building activities (see Detailed Tables B13 and B14, for example). Since office buildings comprise a wide range of office-related activities, survey respondents were presented with a follow-up list of specific office types to choose from. Although we have not presented the office sub-category information in the detailed tables we make information about the sub-categories available in the 2003 Public Use Micro-Data files. Several of the sub-category choices presented to respondents were reported too few times to produce statistically reliable estimates and were aggregated with the “other type of office” category..."