Commercial buildings include a variety of building types and uses--offices, stores and warehouses just to name a few—and they account for about 19% of the energy consumed in the nation. Therefore, substantial financial and ecological benefit can be gained from upgrading them to energy efficiency.
The top five energy-consuming building categories use about half of the energy consumed by all commercial buildings, and they include the following types of buildings:
Merchandising and service (15% of total energy consumed by commercial buildings)
Malls and stores
Car dealerships
Dry cleaners
Gas stations
Office (14% of consumption)
Professional and government offices
Banks
Education (10% of consumption)
Elementary, middle, and high school
Colleges
Health care (8% of consumption)
Hospitals
Medical offices
Lodging (6% of consumption)
Hotels
Dormitories
Nursing homes
Last updated: September 28, 2018 (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
According to National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency, energy represents the largest controllable operating cost of a commercial building. Compared to a conventional building, the lifetime energy cost savings produced by an energy-efficient building can reach millions of dollars.
Energy cost savings on the order of 35% or more are possible for many existing buildings (U.S. EPA).
Many new and renovated buildings designed for energy efficiency offer energy cost savings of as much as 50 percent when compared with conventional buildings (U.S. EPA,).
The average office building can reduce energy costs by 10 to 30 percent simply by applying low-cost energy efficiency measures and operational adjustments. At an average energy cost of $2.00 per square foot, that equates to savings of 20 to 60 cents per square foot—or $20,000 to $60,000 for a 100,000 square foot building (U.S. EPA,).
Buildings that have superior energy efficiency use 40 percent less energy than average buildings and offer savings of about $0.50 per square foot per year in lower energy costs, based on a conservative estimate (U.S. EPA)
Energy needs vary, but when viewed as a whole more than half of the energy used in commercial buildings goes to heating and lighting. That said, significant savings can be realized updating other systems as well.
Our areas of expertise include:
Lighting Systems
Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning Systems (HVAC)
Central Boiler and Chiller Plants
Electrical Systems
Building Automation System (automatic centralized control of a building's systems)
Industrial Process Energy Reduction
Cogeneration (Combined Heat and Power)
Facility Infrastructure Improvements
Building Envelope (the physical separator between the conditioned and unconditioned environment of a building)
Our engineers can provide you with an assessment that identifies your energy waste and suggest tailored remedies to address that waste without affecting your budget.