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On average, a U.S. office building spends nearly benchmark rating of your facility, use the Energy Star
29 percent of its operating expenses on utilities, and National Energy Performance Rating system via Port-
the majority of this expenditure goes toward electricity folio Manager software (www.energystar.gov/index.
and natural gas. For the average office building, energy cfm?c=evaluate_performance.bus_portfoliomanager).
costs can exceed $30,000 per year. Therefore, mea-
Overall, lighting, cooling, and ventilation are respon-
sures for saving energy can significantly assist office
sible for more than 60 percent of electricity use by
buildings in improving their bottom line.
office buildings, and heating dominates natural gas
consumption (Figure 1). As a result, these are the
How Office Buildings Use Energy
best areas to target for energy savings.
Office buildings in the U.S. use an average of
17.3 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and Quick Fixes
31.8 cubic feet of natural gas per square foot (ft2)
Many office buildings can benefit from quick low-
annually. (Data is calculated using a 2003 U.S.
or no-cost energy-saving solutions such as turning
Energy Information Administration survey of com-
things off, turning things down, and following a cleaning
mercial buildings.) Using average commercial energy
and maintenance schedule that keeps equipment
prices of $0.10 per kWh and $0.98 per hundred cubic
running efficiently.
feet, the average cost of power per ft2 for office build-
ings is approximately $1.73 for electricity and $0.31 Turning Things Off
for natural gas. For the average office building in the
U.S. (approximately 15,000 ft2), that translates into It may seem trite, but the simple action of turning
$30,600 spent on energy per year. For a customized things off can yield considerable savings at no cost.
Office equipment
4% Water heating Water heating Cooking
Refrigeration
5% 1% 5% 1%
Other
Space heating 9%
5%
Lighting
Ventilation
39%
9%
Computers
10%
GS1613 09/13/2010