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Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)

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PDF Updated Buildings Sector Appliance and Equipment Costs and Efficiency

Released: November 9, 2016

EIA works with technology experts to project the cost and efficiency of future HVAC, lighting, and other major end-use equipment rather than developing residential and commercial technology projections in-house. These reports have always been available by request. By providing the reports online, EIA is increasing transparency for some of the most important assumptions used for our AEO projections of buildings energy demand. (archived versions)

Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey 2012 - Detailed Tables

Released: May 17, 2016

The 2012 CBECS consumption and expenditures detailed tables are comprised of Tables C1-C38, which cover overall electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and district heat consumption, and tables E1-E11, which disaggregate the same energy sources by end use (heating, cooling, lighting, etc.). All of the detailed tables contain extensive row categories of building characteristics. (archived versions)

2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey: Energy Usage Summary

Released: March 18, 2016

EIA has released summary tables providing energy consumption estimates from the 2012 CBECS. The data show that despite a 14% increase in total buildings and a 22% increase in total floorspace since 2003, energy use in the estimated 5.6 million U.S. commercial buildings was up just 7% during the same period. (archived versions)

PDF Select Results from the Energy Assessor Experiment in the 2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey

Released: December 15, 2015

As part of an effort to make EIA’s energy consumption surveys as accurate and efficient as possible, EIA invited the National Research Council (NRC) to review the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) data-gathering process and make recommendations for improvements. The NRC suggested sending professional energy assessors to some sites and comparing the data obtained from the survey to the data collected by the assessors. Results from the energy assessment data collection have largely confirmed the quality of data gathered by CBECS interviewers. (archived versions)

Spent Nuclear Fuel

Released: December 7, 2015

Spent nuclear fuel data are collected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the Department of Energy's Office of Standard Contract Management (Office of the General Counsel) on the Form GC-859, "Nuclear Fuel Data Survey." The data include detailed characteristics of spent nuclear fuel discharged from commercial U.S. nuclear power plants and currently stored at commercial sites in the United States. Utilities were not required to report spent nuclear fuel assemblies shipped to away-from-reactor, off-site facilities. (archived versions)

A Look at the U.S. Commercial Building Stock: Results from EIA's 2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)

Released: March 4, 2015

The 2012 CBECS collected building characteristics data from more than 6,700 U.S. commercial buildings. This report highlights findings from the survey, with details presented in the Building Characteristics tables. (archived versions)

PDF Price Elasticities for Energy Use in Buildings of the United States

Energy demand tends to be responsive to changes in energy prices, a concept in economics known as price elasticity. Generally, an increase in a fuel price causes users to use less of that fuel or switch to a different fuel. The extent to which each of these changes takes place is of high importance to stakeholders in the energy sector and especially in energy planning. The purpose of this analysis is to determine fuel-price elasticities in stationary structures, particularly in the residential and commercial sectors. (archived versions)

PDF Analysis and Representation of Miscellaneous Electric Loads in NEMS

Released: January 6, 2014

Miscellaneous Electric Loads (MELs) comprise a growing portion of delivered energy consumption in residential and commercial buildings. Recently, the growth of MELs has offset some of the efficiency gains made through technology improvements and standards in major end uses such as space conditioning, lighting, and water heating. Miscellaneous end uses, including televisions, personal computers, security systems, data center servers, and many other devices, have continued to penetrate into building-related market segments. Part of this proliferation of devices and equipment can be attributed to increased service demand for entertainment, computing, and convenience appliances. (archived versions)

PDF Modeling Distributed Generation in the Buildings Sectors

This report focuses on how the Energy Information Administrationmodels residential and commercial sector distributed generation, including combined heat and power, for the Annual Energy Outlook. (archived versions)

PDF Distributed Generation System Characteristics and Costs in the Buildings Sector

Released: August 7, 2013

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) works with technology experts to project the cost and performance of future residential and commercial sector photovoltaic (PV) and small wind installations rather than developing technology projections in-house. These reports have always been available by request. By providing the reports online, EIA is increasing transparency for the assumptions used for our Annual Energy Outlook buildings sector distributed generation projections. (archived versions)

Combined heat and power technology fills an important energy niche

(archived versions)

Water Data Collection in the 2007 CBECS

The 2007 round of the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) was the first time in the 30 year CBECS history that questions about water consumption were asked of respondents. The Energy Information Administration (EIA), in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), added these questions to the CBECS because water and energy consumption are connected in many ways. (archived versions)

Large Hospital Buildings in the United States in 2007

Released: August 17, 2012

Hospitals consume large amounts of energy because of how they are run and the many people that use them. They are open 24 hours a day; thousands of employees, patients, and visitors occupy the buildings daily; and sophisticated heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems control the temperatures and air flow. In addition, many energy intensive activities occur in these buildings: laundry, medical and lab equipment use, sterilization, computer and server use, food service, and refrigeration. (archived versions)

An Assessment of EIA's Building Consumption Data

Released: March 15, 2012

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) routinely uses feedback from customers and outside experts to help improve its programs and products. As part of an assessment of its consumption surveys, EIA reached out to the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) asking them to assess the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) and the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) and recommend improvements in data quality, geographic coverage, timeliness of data releases, and relevance of data for users. (archived versions)

PDF Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey - Office Buildings

Provides an in-depth look at this building type as reported in the 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. Office buildings are the most common type of commercial building and they consumed more than 17% of all energy in the commercial buildings sector in 2003. This special report provides characteristics and energy consumption data by type of office building (e.g. administrative office, government office, medical office) and information on some of the types of equipment found in office buildings: heating and cooling equipment, computers, servers, printers, and photocopiers. (archived versions)

Lighting in Commercial Buildings

Released: April 15, 2009

Lighting is a major consumer of electricity in commercial buildings and a target for energy savings through use of energy-efficient light sources along with other advanced lighting technologies. The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) collects information on types of lighting equipment, the amount of floorspace that is lit, and the percentage of floorspace lit by each type. In addition, CBECS data are used to model end-use consumption, including energy consumed for lighting in commercial buildings. (archived versions)

PDF Overview of Commercial Buildings, 2003

The Energy Information Administration conducts the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) to collect information on energy-related building characteristics and types and amounts of energy consumed in commercial buildings in the United States. (archived versions)

PDF Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey 2003 - Detailed Tables

Released: September 1, 2008

The tables contain information about energy consumption and expenditures in U.S. commercial buildings and information about energy-related characteristics of these buildings. (archived versions)

Computers and Photocopiers in Commercial Buildings

Released: August 12, 2002

Use of computers and photocopiers in commercial buildings, based on 1999 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey data. (archived versions)

Look at Building Activities in the 1999 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, A

Profiles of commercial building types, including office buildings, shopping malls, hospitals, churches, and fire stations. Data from the 1999 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. (archived versions)

Trends in the Commercial Buildings Sector

Released: January 12, 2000

Trends in number of buildings, amount of floorspace, and energy consumption from 1979 to 1999. (archived versions)

PDF Comparison of Measures by Consumption and Supply Surveys, A

Released: June 15, 1988

This report was prepared in response to a request from the Office of Policy Integration in the U.S. Department of Energy for an analysis of how Energy Information Administration data from its consumption surveys compares with data from its supply surveys. (archived versions)