Commercial Energy Use

Energy Use in Commercial Buildings
Types of Energy Used in Commercial Buildings
Energy Use by Type of Building

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ENERGY USE IN COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS

Commercial buildings include a wide variety of building types—offices, hospitals, schools, police stations, places of worship, warehouses, hotels, barber shops, libraries, shopping malls—and that’s just the beginning of the list. These different commercial activities all have unique energy needs but, as a whole, commercial buildings use more than half their energy for heating and lighting.

How Energy is Used in Commercial Buildings

TYPES OF ENERGY USED IN COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS

Electricity and natural gas are the most common energy sources used in commercial buildings. Commercial buildings also use another source that you don’t usually find used in residential buildings—district energy. When there are many buildings close together, like on a college campus or in a big city, it is sometimes more efficient to have a central heating and cooling plant that distributes steam, hot water, or chilled water to all of the different buildings. A district system can reduce equipment and maintenance costs, as well as save energy.

ENERGY USE BY TYPE OF BUILDING

Retail and service buildings use the most total energy of all the commercial building types. This isn’t too surprising when you think of all the stores and service businesses in most towns. Offices use a large share of energy, too. Education buildings, like your school, use 13 percent of all total energy, which is even more than all hospitals and other medical buildings combined! Lodging buildings (like hotels or dormitories) use 8 percent of all energy. Warehouses and food service (like restaurants) each use 7 percent. Public assembly buildings, which can be anything from libraries to sports arenas, use 6 percent; food sales buildings (like grocery stores and convenience stores) use 4 percent. All other types of buildings, like places of worship, fire stations, police stations, and laboratories, account for the remaining 10 percent of commercial building energy.

Last Revised: December 2006
Source: Energy Information Administration, 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey.