by Jbs122308 g3 — December 26, 2008—The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released the results of its 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), which collects information on energy-related building characteristics and types and amounts of energy consumed in commercial buildings in the US.
Two key findings include that electricity accounts for more than half of energy consumed by commercial buildings; and that more than half of energy consumed in commercial buildings is used for space heating and lighting.
CBECS reports that in 2003, commercial buildings:
- totaled nearly 4.9 million buildings;
- comprised more than 71.6 billion square feet of floorspace;
- consumed more than 6,500 trillion Btu of energy, with electricity accounting for 55% and natural gas 32%; and
- consumed 36% of energy for space heating and 21% for lighting.
The report includes detailed 2003 tables, building characteristics tables, consumption and expenditures tables, and end-use consumption tables.
The CBECS is a national-level sample survey conducted quadrennially of buildings greater than 1,000 square feet in size that devote more than 50 percent of their floorspace to commercial activity. EIA notes that the 2003 CBECS, the eighth in the series begun in 1979, is significant because it was conducted using a completely new sample frame, the list of buildings from which the buildings to be surveyed were selected.
