August 2023 U.S. Energy Use Intensity by Property Type Page 1
U.S. Energy Use Intensity by Property Type
OVERVIEW
This reference table is designed to help you to compare your property’s energy use to the national median (or mid-
point) energy use of similar properties.
Benchmarking your Property
When benchmarking in Portfolio Manager, we recommend that you focus on the primary function (or, main activity) in
your building(s). Begin by selecting your primary function from the table below and then enter as few additional use
types as possible. Benchmarking your building using a single use type will most closely approximate how your
building would have been recorded in the reference data survey, and therefore yield the most accurate comparisons
to median performance. In some cases, buildings may have multiple distinctly different uses. For example, an office
and a hotel that share a common building. In these mixed-use settings, it is appropriate to enter multiple use types.
Definitions of all property types are available at: www.energystar.gov/PMGlossary
.
Using Median Site and Source Energy Use Intensity (EUI)
The national median source EUI is a recommended benchmark metric for all buildings. The median value is the
middle of the national population – half of buildings use more energy, half use less. The median works better than the
mean (arithmetic average) for comparing relative energy performance, because it more accurately reflects the mid-
point of energy use for most property types.
The table presents the median in both site EUI and source EUI. Site EUI is what you may be familiar with from your
utility bills. Site EUI contains a mixture of what is called primary energy (i.e., a raw fuel like natural gas) and
secondary energy (i.e., a converted product like electricity or district steam). Source energy provides the most
equitable way to combine primary and secondary energy types into a single common unit, ensuring that no building
receives either a credit or a penalty based on its energy source or utility. You can learn more about source energy
and the way it is computed at www.energystar.gov/SourceEnergy
. We strongly encourage you to use source EUI.
While almost all commercial building types have a national Median Source EUI, some (presented in cyan) will also
have a 1-100 ENERGY STAR Score. The score evaluates a building relative to its peers, similar to the median
energy use values, and also adjusts for climate and business activity. You can learn more about the score at:
www.energystar.gov/ENERGYSTARScore
.
Understanding Reference Data
The right-most column in the table indicates the reference data source we use to determine the median performance
of buildings in your peer group. To compute the national median, we always rely on nationally representative data.
For the majority of property types, the reference data is from the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey
(CBECS). This is a national survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration
(for more information visit: http://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/
). Three additional surveys are referenced for
data centers, wastewater treatment plants, and multifamily housing. Additional information on these surveys can be
found in the technical reference document for each property type.