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The Federal Buildings Supplemental Survey (FBSS) was conducted in 1993 by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in conjunction with the Department of Energy's Office of Federal Energy Management Programs (OFEMP) to gain a better understanding of how Federal buildings use energy. OFEMP requested that the FBSS provide building-level energy-related characteristics for a special sample of commercial buildings owned by the Federal government. This special sample met the following OFEMP-specified criteria:

• (1) Federal buildings from different areas of the country - Federal Regions 3, 6, and 9;
  
• Fewer sample buildings from Department of Defense (DOD) -- sample selection ratio of 1:10 for DOD buildings in each Federal Region; and
• Commercial building eligibility based on (a) size -- 10,000 square feet or over and (b) building use -- exclude buildings with the majority of the floorspace used for warehouse/storage purposes.

Information for Federal commercial buildings is also collected in the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), which is one of the consumption surveys conducted by EIA. CBECS is a national sample survey that collects statistical information on the consumption of and expenditures for energy in U.S. commercial buildings along with data on energy-related characteristics of the buildings. The first CBECS was conducted in 1979 and triennially since 1983. The number of Federal buildings that are selected for the relatively small CBECS sample does not allow for in-depth examination of energy use and characteristics of these buildings, which is necessary to meet the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT). The FBSS was conducted to provide more detailed information about Federal buildings.

WHAT ARE THE FBSS PUBLIC USE FILES?

The Public Use Files are microdata files that contain 881 records, which represent specifically responding Federal commercial buildings from three Federal regions: Federal Region 3 (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia); Federal Region 6 (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas); and Federal Region 9 (Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada). Each record corresponds to a single responding, in-scope sample building and contains information for that building about the building size, year constructed, types of energy used, energy-using equipment, conservation features, energy consumption and expenditures, and temperature data.

WHAT IS THE GEOGRAPHIC-LEVEL OF DATA AVAILABLE?

The FBSS data represents 881 completed telephone interviews with Federal buildings in three Federal regions. These buildings were systematically selected using the OFEMP's specifications; therefore, these data do not statistically represent all Federal buildings in the United States. The FBSS sample design permits Federal regional-level estimates (weighted building-level data) for selected building characteristics and consumption and expenditures in the three Federal Regions listed above. No national data nor state-level data are available.

The Public Use Files are constructed in ASCII and dBase formats. The records are comma-delimited with fixed column positions.

HOW ARE THE PUBLIC USE FILES ORGANIZED?

The 22 Public Use Data files are organized by subject matter. Each file contains the following core variables:

1. Building identifier, which is the link between files;
2. Federal region;
3. Principal building activity;
4. Square footage and the square footage category;
5. Year constructed category;
6. Number of workers;
7. Variance stratum;
8. Adjusted sampling weight; and
9. A set of variables indicating whether electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, district steam or district hot water was used in the building.

Files ending in T are in ASCII format and those ending in D are in dBase format.

FILES 1 THROUGH 11 are located in FB941STT.EXE (ASCII format) or FB941STD.EXE (dBase format) and contain the following files:

File 1: General Building Information and Energy End Uses (record length:244 bytes)

File 2: Building Activity Percents and Special Measures of Size (record length:192 bytes)

File 3: Heating Equipment, Heating Distribution Equipment, Motors (record length:236 bytes)

File 4: Cooling Equipment, Cooling Distribution Equipment, Sponsor and Type of Assistance Received for Central Chiller Retrofit (record length: 177 bytes)

File 5: End Uses of Major Energy Sources, Fuel Switching (record length: 254 bytes)

File 6: Minor Energy Sources, Special Energy Technologies, Refrigeration, Water Heating Equipment, Multibuilding Facilities, Electricity Generation, Central Plant (record length: 230 bytes)

File 7: Lighting Equipment, Conservation Features, Energy Management Practices, Demand-Side Management (DSM) Programs (record length: 252 bytes)

File 8: Imputation Flags for -- Energy Sources, End Uses (record length:246 bytes)

File 9: Imputation Flags for -- Heating Equipment, Heating Distribution Equipment, Cooling Equipment, Cooling Distribution Equipment, Sponsor and Type of Assistance Received for Central Chiller Retrofit (record length: 248 bytes)

File 10: Imputation Flags for -- Building Activities, Special Measures of Size, Multibuilding Facilities, Operating Hours, Workers, Building Construction, Central Plant (record length: 246 bytes)

File 11: Imputation Flags for -- Fuel Switching, Special Energy Technologies, Lighting Equipment, Conservation Features, Demand-Side Management, Energy Management Practices (record length: 250 bytes)

FILES 12 THROUGH 22 are located in FB942NDT.EXE (ASCII format) or FB942NDD.EXE (dBase format) and contain the following files:

File 12: Electricity (record length: 144 bytes)

File 13: Natural Gas (record length: 158 bytes)

File 14: Fuel Oil (record length: 158 bytes)

File 15: District Heat (record length: 252 bytes)

File 16: Imputation Flags for -- Motors, DSM Programs (record length: 120 bytes)

File 17: Sponsors of: Thermal Energy Storage, Water Heating Retrofits, Lighting Retrofits, DSM Programs (record length: 168 bytes)

File 18: Type of Assistance Received for: Thermal Energy Storage, Water Heating Retrofits, Lighting Retrofits, DSM Programs (record length: 176 bytes)

File 19: Imputation Flags for -- Sponsor and Type of Assistance for Heating Equipment Retrofit (record length:228 bytes)

File 20: Imputation Flags for -- Refrigeration Equipment, Water Heating Equipment, Electricity Generation, Sponsor of: Thermal Energy Storage, Water Heating Retrofits, Lighting Retrofits and DSM Programs (record length: 192 bytes)

File 21: Imputation Flags for -- Type of Assistance for: Thermal Energy Storage Water Heating Retrofits, Lighting Retrofits and DSM Programs (record length:162 bytes)

File 22: Sponsor and Type of Assistance for Heating Equipment Retrofit (record length:216 bytes)

HOW ARE VARIABLES FROM SEPARATE FILES LINKED?

In some instances, a FBSS user may want to undertake analysis that requires using a variable from several different files. In those cases, the files have to be linked to one another. The common variable on each file that can be used to merge files is BLDGID5.

HOW ARE THE VARIABLES THAT BEGIN WITH A Z DIFFERENT FROM THE VARIABLES THAT DO NOT BEGIN WITH A Z (NON-Z VARIABLES)

The "Z variables" are also referred to as "imputation flags." Imputation is a statistical procedure used to fill in values for missing items. Many, but not all, of the variables were imputed in the 1993 FBSS. The imputation flag indicates whether the corresponding non-Z variable was reported, imputed, missing, or inapplicable.

HOW ARE THE SAMPLE DATA WEIGHTED TO ARRIVE AT A REGIONAL ESTIMATE?

The FBSS was designed so that survey responses could be used to estimate characteristics of the entire Federal commercial stock in each region selected. To arrive at the regional estimate from the FBSS sample, base sampling weights for each building, which were the reciprocal of the probability of that building being selected into the sample, were calculated. Therefore, a building with a base weight of 1,000 represents itself and 999 similar, but unsampled buildings in the total building stock for a region. The base weight is further adjusted to account for nonresponse bias. The variable ADJWT6 in the data file is the adjusted weight. To obtain a weighted estimate, each sample building's value must be multiplied by the building's weight.

The 1993 FBSS microdata file layout and variable codes are located here in PDF format. To view and/or print PDF files (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader ) - Download Adobe Acrobat Reader . The file layout contains the variable names, a brief description of the variables, and the variable position on the files.

The 1993 FBSS microdata files are located on the FTP site in ASCII and dBase formats.

To download files 1 through 11 click here forASCII or click here for dBase

To download files 12 through 22 click here forASCII or click here for dBase

For general questions about FBSS contact:

Joelle Michaels

joelle.michaels@eia.doe.gov

CBECS Manager

Phone: (202) 586-8952

FAX: (202) 586-0018

For technical questions about the CBECS data or the Public Use Files contact:

Jay Olsen via E-mail jay.olsen@eia.doe.gov or by phone on 202-586-1137.

For answers to questions of energy statistics in general, please contact the National Energy Information Center.

File Last Modified: October 1, 1997

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