Home > Commercial Buildings Home > 1995 Characteristics Data > 1995 Detailed Tables Overview

Overview to the Detailed Tables

In 1995, there were 4.6 (+ or -0.4) million commercial buildings containing 58.8 (+ or -3.9) billion square feet of floorspace in the United States, as estimated by the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). The CBECS is a national sample survey of commercial buildings and their energy suppliers. The 1995 CBECS was the sixth survey in the series, begun in 1979.

The survey is conducted in two stages, the Building Characteristics Survey and the Energy Suppliers Survey. The first collects information by personal interview on physical characteristics of the building, building use and occupancy patterns, major equipment used, conservation practices, and types and uses of energy sources in the buildings. The suppliers survey (a mail survey), collects information on amounts and costs of energy delivered to the building during the 1995 survey year.

The target population for the 1995 CBECS consisted of all commercial buildings in the United States with more than 1,000 square feet of floorspace. A commercial building is defined by CBECS as an enclosed structure with more than 50 percent of its floorspace devoted to activities that are neither residential, industrial, nor agricultural. The sample of eligible commercial buildings contained 6,590 buildings, of these, interviews were completed at 5,766 for a response rate of 88 percent.

This set of detailed tables contains the number of buildings and amount of floorspace for major building characteristics, energy sources, and energy end uses. Tables 1 and 2 are summary tables, while Tables 3 to 17 address location, building size, year constructed, number of workers, hours of operation, and types of occupancy. Energy sources used for all end uses and for specific major end uses are addressed in Tables 18 to 28. Tables 29 through 32 address the percent of floorspace heated, cooled, and lit. Tables 33 through 40 are energy-using equipment tables. Tables 41 through 44 are conservation tables.

List of Tables

1. Summary Table: Totals and Means of Floorspace, Number of Workers, and Hours of Operation, 1995

2. Summary Table: Totals and Medians of Floorspace, Number of Workers, Hours of Operation and Age of Building, 1995

3. Census Region, Number of Buildings, and Floorspace, 1995

4. Census Region and Division, Number of Buildings, 1995

5. Census Region and Division, Floorspace, 1995

6. Climate Zone, Number of Buildings, and Floorspace, 1995

7. Metropolitan Status, Number of Buildings, and Floorspace, 1995

8. Building Size, Number of Buildings, 1995

9. Building Size, Floorspace, 1995

10. Year Constructed, Number of Buildings, 1995

11. Year Constructed, Floorspace, 1995

12. Employment Size Category, Number of Buildings, 1995

13. Employment Size Category, Floorspace, 1995

14. Weekly Operating Hours, Number of Buildings, 1995

15. Weekly Operating Hours, Floorspace, 1995

16. Occupancy of Nongovernment-Owned and Government-Owned Buildings, Number of Buildings, 1995

17. Occupancy of Nongovernment-Owned and Government-Owned Buildings, Floorspace, 1995

18. Energy Sources, Number of Buildings, 1995

19. Energy Sources, Floorspace, 1995

20. Energy End Uses, Number of Buildings, and Floorspace, 1995

21. Space-Heating Energy Sources, Number of Buildings, 1995

22. Space-Heating Energy Sources, Floorspace, 1995

23. Primary Space-Heating Energy Sources, Number of Buildings, 1995

24. Primary Space-Heating Energy Sources, Floorspace, 1995

25. Cooling Energy Sources, Number of Buildings, and Floorspace, 1995

26. Water-Heating Energy Sources, Number of Buildings, 1995

27. Water-Heating Energy Sources, Floorspace, 1995

28. Cooking Energy Sources, Number of Buildings, and Floorspace, 1995

29. Percent of Floorspace Heated, Number of Buildings and Floorspace, 1995

30. Percent of Floorspace Cooled, Number of Buildings and Floorspace, 1995

31. Percent of Floorspace Lit when Open, Number of Buildings and Floorspace, 1995

32. Heated, Cooled and Lit Buildings, Floorspace, 1995

33. Heating Equipment, Number of Buildings, 1995

34. Heating Equipment, Floorspace, 1995

35. Cooling Equipment, Number of Buildings, 1995

36. Cooling Equipment, Floorspace, 1995

37. Refrigeration Equipment, Number of Buildings and Floorspace, 1995

38. Water-Heating Equipment, Number of Buildings and Floorspace, 1995

39. Lighting Equipment, Number of Buildings, 1995

40. Lighting Equipment, Floorspace, 1995

41. Energy Conservation Features, Number of Buildings and Floorspace, 1995

42. Building Shell Conservation Features, Number of Buildings, 1995

43. Building Shell Conservation Features, Floorspace, 1995

44. Reduction in Equipment Use During Off Hours, Number of Buildings and Floorspace, 1995

Data in Table Rows

All Buildings: All commercial buildings in the United States.

Building Floorspace: The sum of floorspace in all buildings in a category.

Census Region and Division: A geographic area consisting of several States as defined by the U. S. Bureau of the Census. The States are grouped into four regions and nine divisions:

Region	Division	State
Northeast	New England	Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont
	Middle Atlantic	New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania
Midwest	East North Central	Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin
	West North Central	Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota
South	South Atlantic	Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia
	East South Central	Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee
	West South Central	Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas
West	Mountain	Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming
	Pacific	Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington

Climate Zone: One of five climatically distinct areas, defined by long-term weather conditions:

Climate Zone	Average Annual Cooling Degree-Days	Average Annual Heating Degree-Days
1	Fewer than 2,000	More than 7,000
2	Fewer than 2,000	5,500 to 7,000
3	Fewer than 2,000	4,000 to 5,499
4	Fewer than 2,000	Fewer than 4,000
5	2,000 or more	Fewer than 4,000

Energy End Use: A specific use for which energy is consumed in the building. Major end uses are:

Space Heating--use of mechanical equipment to heat all, or part, of a building to at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cooling--conditioning of room air for human comfort by a refrigeration unit or by a central cooling or district cooling system that circulates chilled water.
Water Heating--use of energy to heat water for purposes other than space heating.
Cooking--use of energy for commercial or institutional food preparation.
Manufacturing--any of the energy-using operations required for manufacturing or industrial processes.
Electricity Generation--onsite production of electricity using electricity generators on either a regular or emergency basis.

Energy Source: A type of energy or fuel used to supply energy to the building. Major sources are:

Electricity--electricity supplied via power lines from a central utility or from a central physical plant in a separate building that is part of the same multibuilding facility.
Natural Gas--supplied to individual buildings by pipelines from a local distribution company.
Fuel Oil--a liquid petroleum product; includes distillate fuel oil (Nos. 1, 2, and 4), residual fuel oil (Nos. 5 and 6), and kerosene.
District Heat--steam or hot water produced outside of the building in a central plant and piped into the building for space heating or another end use.
District Chilled Water--water chilled outside of the building in a central district system and piped into the building for cooling.
Propane--a gaseous petroleum product that liquefies under pressure; propane is the major component of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Floors: The number of floor levels in the building that are considered part of the building, including floors below ground level.

Ownership and Occupancy: Ownership is the individual, agency, or organization that owns the building. Occupancy is the individual, agency, or organization that leases or holds the space on a full-time basis.

Principal Building Activity: The activity or function that occupies the most (50 percent or more) floorspace in the building:

Education--all levels of academic or technical class room instruction.
Food Sales--retail or wholesale of food.
Food Service--preparation and sale of prepared food and beverages for sale.
Health Care--diagnostic and treatment facilities for inpatient and outpatient care.
Lodging--multiple accommodations for short-term or long-term residents.
Mercantile and Service--sales and displays of goods or services other than food.
Office--general office space, professional offices, and administrative offices.
Public Assembly--private or public meeting halls, where people gather for social or recreational activities.
Public Order and Safety--preservation of law and order or safety.
Religious Worship--where people gather for religious activities.
Warehouse and Storage--storage of goods, manufactured products, merchandise, or raw materials.
Other--activities that do not fit into any of the specifically named categories.
Vacant--more floorspace was vacant than was used for any single commercial activity.

Weekly Operating Hours: The number of hours per week that a building is used, excluding hours when the building is occupied only by maintenance, security, or other support personnel.

Workers (main shift): The number of people working in a building during the main shift on a typical workday.

Year Constructed: The year in which the major part or largest portion of a building was constructed.

Data in Table Columns

Census Division: One of nine geographic areas, each consisting of several States. See Census Region and Division in previous section.

Government-Owned: Building owned by Federal, State, or local government.

Mean: The simple average for a population characteristic that is the sum of all the values in a population divided by the size of the population. For example, mean square feet per building is the total floorspace divided by the total number of buildings.

Median: The middle value of the population characteristic; half of the population has a value greater than the median and half has a value less than the median.

Metropolitan: A Metropolitan Statistical Area is a county or group of contiguous counties that contain: (1) at least one 50,000 population city, or (2) an urbanized area of at least 50,000 inhabitants and a total MSA population of at least 100,000 (75,000 in New England).

Nongovernment-Owned: Building owned by a private business or nonprofit organization, or owned by a group or an individual.

Primary Space Heating Energy Source: The energy source that is used to heat most of the floorspace in the building most of the time.

Standard Errors and Relative Standard Errors

An approximate RSE can be computed for each estimate in these tables via the use of row and column factors. The RSE for a given estimate is found by multiplying the RSE Row Factor (located in the last column) for the estimate by its RSE Column Factor (at the top of the column). This value is the approximate RSE, in percent. The RSE (divided by 100 and multiplied by the estimate) is the approximate standard error.

The 95-percent confidence range can be determined with the approximate RSE. To calculate the 95-percent confidence range for a given estimate:

1. Multiply the RSE row factor by the RSE column factor to determine the approximate RSE.
2. Multiply the approximate RSE (divided by 100) by the estimate in the table to determine the approximate standard error.
3. Multiply the approximate standard error by 1.96 to determine the approximate confidence error.
4. The estimate plus or minus the confidence error is the 95-percent confidence range.

For example, the estimate for the total number of commercial buildings in the 1995 CBECS is 4.579 million buildings (Table 1), the estimate's RSE row factor is 3.2, and its RSE column factor is 1.3. The approximate RSE is (3.2)x(1.3) or 4.2 percent. The approximate standard error is (4.2/100)x(4.579 million buildings) or 0.192 million buildings. The 95-percent confidence error is (1.96)x(0.192 million buildings) or 0.377 million buildings. Therefore, with 95 percent confidence, the true number of commercial buildings in the United States, in 1995, was 4.579 (+ or - 0.377) million buildings or the range 4.202 to 4.956 million buildings.

Detailed Tables

Table of Contents

File Last Modified: August 12, 1997

Contact:

Joelle Michaels

joelle.michaels@eia.doe.gov

CBECS Manager

Phone: (202) 586-8952

FAX: (202) 586-0018

URL: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs/cb952a.html


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