Where the energy goes in U.S. commercial buildings — by building type, from national stock down to Idaho Power’s climate region.
Geography
Sample
Building type
⚡ Electric loads
Annual electricity split across ten end uses
kBtu/sf·yr total electric EUI
0
End use
kBtu/sf
Share
💧 Water heating
Fuel mix and intensity of service hot water
kBtu/sf·yr water-heating EUI
Electric share of water-heating energy
Fuel
💡 Lighting
Technology, controls, and intensity
kBtu/sf·yr lighting EUI
LED share of lit floor area
Share of lit floor area, by lamp technology
Technology
% lit area
Share of lit floor area with each control strategy (not mutually exclusive)
🔌 Equipment & plug loads
Plug/process electricity and device density
kBtu/sf·yr plug & process electric EUI
0
End use
kBtu/sf
of floor area contains a data center.
Devices per 1,000 sf, population-weighted across the stock
Share of floor area with each refrigeration equipment type (not mutually exclusive)
🔥 Internal heat gains
People, lights, and equipment — the steady gains that lower the balance-point temperature and offset heating
W/sf internal gain · operating-hours average
sf / worker
workers / 1,000 sf
hours open / week
ASHRAE moderately active office work ≈ 73 W sensible. People gain assumes full staffing during operating hours.
0
Source
W/sf
Share
Caveats. Figures are time-averaged (annual energy ÷ operating hours), not design peaks. The employee count is staff, not total occupants — education, retail, lodging, and assembly understate true people load (use seats, guest rooms, or a per-type occupancy assumption there). Refrigeration is excluded from the equipment term since it runs continuously, off the occupied schedule.
⛽ Total site energy
All fuels — site EUI split by source (the complete picture, not just the electric slice)
kBtu/sf·yr total site EUI
Electric share of total site energy
0
Fuel
kBtu/sf
Share
🪟 Glazing & daylighting
Window area, glazing type, and daylight reach — feeds the Daylight & Solar tools
% of floor area daylit
have skylights / atria
most common glass band
Exterior glass band
% buildings
🧱 Envelope construction
Predominant wall & roof assemblies — a default starting point when the Insulation calculator has no assembly yet
cool roofs (% buildings)
flat / low-slope roofs
Wall construction
Share of buildings, by predominant wall material
Wall material
% buildings
Roof construction
Share of buildings, by predominant roof material
Roof material
% buildings
🏗️ EUI by vintage
Site energy intensity across construction eras — the older-stock / retrofit story
Population-weighted EUI per construction era; the dot and count flag the unweighted sample size in each bin.
📐 EUI by size class
Site energy intensity by building floor area — small buildings run hotter per square foot
Population-weighted EUI per floor-area bin; the dot and count flag the unweighted sample size in each bin.
How to read this. Every figure is population-weighted with the CBECS final building weight (FINALWT) and expressed as site energy use intensity — aggregate energy ÷ aggregate floor area for the selected group (kBtu/sf·yr). Electric end uses are EIA modeled allocations of metered electricity.
Geography.National is the eight tracked building types nationwide; IPC is CBECS climate categories 1–2 (the climate-zone proxy for Idaho Power territory used across the IDL CBECS series); West and West + IPC narrow by Census Region.
Lighting & equipment. Technology mix is the share of lit floor area by lamp type; control and refrigeration figures are the share of floor area with each feature (a building can have several). Device density is weighted units per 1,000 sf across all floor area.
Sample flags.● n ≥ 70 robust · ● 30–69 use with caution · ● n < 30 too small. Counts are unweighted survey buildings.
Heat-pump caveat. CBECS does not separate heat-pump water heaters from electric resistance — both sit inside the electric water-heating figure. Read the electric share as the electrification ceiling, not HPWH penetration.
University of Idaho Integrated Design Lab · idlboise.com
Source: 2018 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey public-use microdata (U.S. EIA). Self-contained — no external dependencies, no data leaves your browser.