Benchmarks - Ranking Building
Energy Intensity

The cost of electricity, natural gas, propane, and fuel oil has risen significantly in the last several years. This sharp rise in cost has caused much concern for institutional operating budgets, retail profit potential, and the means for diminishing the energy cost escalation. The efficiency of energy use and subsequent energy cost of a building can be benchmarked, that is, establish an annual energy use reference for comparing to other buildings of similar size, functional use, and operating schedules. This benchmark can also be used to track on a monthly basis the savings generated by the application of several Energy Conservation Measures (Energy Saving Fact Sheet #, ECM Listing) In order to normalize the comparison, geographic regions of the United States are categorized for similar annual weather conditions.  Electric power companies track consumption,demand, and billed cost by metered accounts and historically can provide achieved histories back several years. Additionally, heating energy from natural gas, propane, and fuel oil can be traced through billing accounts of quantities and cost as well. With this information it is possible to develop a building benchmark reference for energy use and gauge the potential for savings.  Read more>