A Look at Food Service Buildings
How do they use energy and how much does it cost?
How do they use energy and how much does it cost?
Food service buildings account for 6 percent of all commercial energy consumption, using a total of 332 trillion Btu of combined site electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and district steam or hot water (see total energy figure on home page).
Electricity accounts for half of all energy use, natural gas for just under half of all use in food service buildings. Only a small amount of fuel oil and district heat are used; together they account for only 3 percent of all energy use in food service buildings.
Site electricity is the amount of electricity consumed within the building; electricity use can also be expressed as primary electricity, which includes the energy consumed in generating and transmitting electricity. Food service buildings used 502 trillion Btu of primary electricity, which brings the total energy consumption for food service buildings up to 668 trillion Btu, or 6 percent of total primary consumption for all commercial buildings.
Energy use is distributed among a number of different uses in food service buildings. Cooking accounts for the most use, followed by lighting, refrigeration, and space heating.
Food service buildings use an average of 1.2 billion Btu per building and have an energy intensity of 245.5 thousand Btu per square foot. This is the highest intensity of all commercial building types, greatly exceeding the average for all commercial buildings (90.5 Btu per square foot). (See total energy per square foot figure on home page.)
Table 4: Major fuel consumption and cost by size category
$4.8 billion is spent per year for energy in food service buildings and most of this is spent on electricity. The energy expenditures in food service buildings account for 7 percent of energy expenditures in commercial buildings.
On average, $3.56 per square foot is spent on energy in food service buildings, almost three times the national average for energy usage in commercial buildings ($1.19 per square foot).
Forecasts
The Office of Integrated Analysis and Forecasting (OIAF) uses CBECS data to make commercial sector energy use projections. For estimates of commercial building consumption (and floorspace) from 1998 to 2020, see Table 22 of Supplement Tables to the AEO2000.
Continue: How do they use electricity?
Go to "How do they use energy and how much does it cost?" for other building types:
- Office
- Education
- Health Care
- Retail and Service
- Food Service
Specific questions may be directed to:
Joelle Davis Michaels
joelle.michaels@eia.doe.gov
CBECS Manager
URL: http://www.eia.gov/emeu/consumptionbriefs/cbecs/pbawebsite/foodserv/foodserv_howuseenergy.htm
Release
date: August 2, 2000
File
last modified: January 3, 2001