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Preliminary End-Use Consumption Estimates

 

Additional topics: End-Use Consumption by Principal Building Activity | Comparison of 1999 End-Use Estimates with Previous CBECS

This report presents preliminary estimates for energy end-use consumption in commercial buildings, based on the 1999 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). Table 1 shows national-level totals of building end-use consumption for three energy sources: natural gas, electricity, and fuel oil.

       Table 1. End-Use Consumption for Natural Gas, Electricity, and Fuel Oil, 1999 (Preliminary Estimates)
  Natural Gas
(trillion Btu)		 Electricity
(trillion Btu)		 Fuel Oil
(trillion Btu)
All Buildings
2,023
3,098
179
End Uses  
Space Heating
1,483
155
167
Water Heating
275
37
6
Cooking
200
65
*
Cooling
8
793
NA
Lighting
NA
716
NA
Office Equipment
NA
555
NA
Refrigeration
NA
266
NA
Ventilation
NA
226
NA
Other
59
288
6

NA = not applicable
* = combined with “Other ”

CBECS collects total energy consumption for natural gas, electricity, and fuel oil, but does not collect end-use consumption data for these sources. For the first time we use nonlinear regression statistical modeling to estimate end-use consumption. For the past three CBECS (1989, 1992, and 1995), we used a statistically-adjusted engineering (SAE) methodology to estimate end-use consumption. The core of the SAE methodology was the Federal Energy Decision Screening (FEDS) engineering simulation model. The FEDS-based SAE methodology was developed for the 1989 CBECS and updated (including a newer version of FEDS) for the 1992 CBECS. Lack of resources did not permit another update, and the 1992 methodology was used again for the 1995 CBECS.

The SAE methodology will not be used for the 1999 CBECS—the FEDS component is out of date and CBECS now collects a wider range of data than can be used as input into the 1992 version. For example, the 2003 CBECS will collect more data on important building end uses, such as office, telecommunications, and computer equipment. In addition, FEDS uses monthly billing data, but consumption data are now collected differently. In the 1995 and earlier CBECS, monthly billing data were collected from all buildings via a separate energy supplier survey. In 1999, we collected annual, but not monthly, consumption data directly from the respondent during the building interview. A follow-up supplier survey for annual data was used only where we could not collect satisfactory data from the respondent. In the 2003 CBECS, we will request annual and monthly data from the respondent.

Specific questions may be addressed to:

Alan Swenson

Release date: October 27, 2003
Page last modified on:

http://www.eia.gov/emeu/cbecs/enduse_consumption/intro.html