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U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION Energy Conservation Measures Widespread, EIA Study Finds Energy conservation is widely practiced in commercial buildings, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). There were 4.6 million commercial buildings the United States in 1995, representing 58.8 billion square feet of floorspace -- more than the total land area of the State of Delaware and over 200 square feet for every resident in the United States. An overwhelming majority (89 percent of buildings) used some form of energy conservation related to the building shell, the heating and cooling systems, or the interior lighting system (Figure 1). These data are taken from Commercial Buildings Characteristics 1995, released today and based on the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, EIA's latest national survey of the energy use and characteristics of the commercial building sector. Other notable findings include: * The most prevalent conservation efforts (found in 85 percent of buildings and 90 percent of floorspace) were related to the building shell -- insulation, storm doors or windows, or other window treatments such as multiple glazing, tinted or reflective glass, or shades and awnings. Conservation measures related to the buildings' heating and cooling systems were the second most prevalent (found in 55 percent of the buildings and 76 percent of floorspace). * Lighting conservation was the least used conservation measure -- less than one-half of all commercial buildings (two-thirds of floorspace) employed any lighting conservation features. Energy efficient ballasts were the only lighting conservation measure found in more than 30 percent of the buildings. Changes in Energy Conservation * Use of window treatments for energy conservation seems to be increasing, after adjustment for changes in survey coverage between 1989 and 1995. Commercial buildings used more exterior or interior shading or awnings, and more storm or multiple glazing in 1995 than in 1989. By 1995, 63 percent of the floorspace was shaded, compared with 42 percent in 1989. Nearly half (49 percent) of the commercial building floorspace used storm or multiple glazing, compared with 38 percent in 1989. * Although lighting conservation was not widespread, some types of lighting conservation appear to be making inroads, again adjusting for survey differences. Specular reflectors were found in 31 percent of commercial floorspace in 1995, compared to 23 percent in 1992; natural lighting control sensors were used in 11 percent of the floorspace, up from 4 percent in 1992; and 10 percent of the floorspace had occupancy sensors compared with 5 percent in 1992. Compact fluorescent lamps were used in 27 percent of the lit floorspace in 1995, up from 14 percent in 1992. Energy Sources and Uses * Electricity and natural gas were the most widely used energy sources -- electricity use was nearly universal (95 percent of buildings and 97 percent of floorspace), while natural gas was used in more than half of commercial buildings and two-thirds of floorspace. Of the other major energy sources, only fuel oil was used for as much as a quarter of floorspace (but in less than 14 percent of buildings). * The four most prevalent uses of energy in commercial buildings were water heating, lighting, space heating, and cooling (Figure 2). All of these uses occurred in at least 70 percent of the buildings and 60 percent of total floorspace. * Use of electricity for space heating increased between 1989 and 1995, while fuel oil space heating declined. Electric heat was used in 40 percent of the heated commercial floorspace in 1995, compared with 30 percent in 1989. Meanwhile, fuel oil accounted for just 13 percent in 1995, compared with 19 percent 6 years earlier. (1989 statistics adjusted for changes in survey coverage.) Building Size Reflected in Conservation Patterns * Smaller buildings predominated -- more than half were in the range 1,001 to 5,000 square feet (typical of convenience stores) and three-quarters in the range 1,001 to 10,000 square feet (Figure 3). Fewer than one in twenty commercial buildings were larger than 50,000 square feet and less than 2 percent were larger than 100,000 square feet. * A common image of an office building is the large multistory building that dominates the skyline of central cities. In fact, some of the very largest buildings found in the United States are office buildings. But office buildings -- the second largest category of commercial building after retail and service buildings -- were actually dominated by small buildings such as banks, real estate offices and insurance offices. Collectively, these small office buildings brought the overall average size of office buildings (14.9 thousand square feet) close to the average size of the total commercial building stock (12.8 thousand square feet per building). * Conservation measures relating to a building's heating and cooling systems or to its lighting were found more often in larger buildings than in smaller ones. Commercial Buildings Characteristics 1995 addresses a number of other building characteristics, including age of buildings, operating hours, number of workers, and types of energy-using equipment, for the nation's stock of commercial buildings. This electronic report can be accessed from EIA's World Wide Web site at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs/cb951a.html. Public use micro data files in ASCII and dBASE format can also be accessed from the Internet at: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs/microdat.html. A companion report Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption and Expenditures 1995 will be available in early 1998. The figures referenced above may be viewed together with this press release in the Press Release section of EIA's Web Site: http://www.eia.doe.gov. Copies may also be obtained from EIA's Press Contact.
EIA Press Contact: Thomas Welch, 202/586-1178, thomas.welch@eia.doe.gov EIA-97-21 Contact:
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