EIA building survey · 2018 · 19 building types
What uses electricity in commercial buildings
How each type of building’s electricity divides between ventilation, lighting, cooling, refrigeration, cooking and the rest, from the federal government’s survey of commercial buildings.
Across U.S. commercial buildings, ventilation (18%), lighting (17%) and cooling (14%) are the largest named uses of electricity, according to EIA’s 2018 building survey; 24% goes to other equipment such as elevators, pumps and plug loads. The mix depends on the building: refrigeration takes 48% in a grocery or convenience store.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey 2018 · 2026-11-10
All commercial buildings
| Other | 24% |
|---|---|
| Ventilation | 18% |
| Lighting | 17% |
| Cooling | 14% |
| Refrigeration | 9% |
| Computing | 7% |
| Space heating | 6% |
| Cooking | 2% |
| Water heating | 2% |
| Office equipment | 1% |
Together the surveyed buildings stand for 1,196.5 billion kWh a year. Where single uses weigh most: refrigeration in a grocery or convenience store (48%), cooling in a gym or recreation facility (33%), lighting in a vehicle repair shop (39%) and ventilation in a medical or dental office or clinic (31%).
By building type
| Building type | Surveyed buildings | Space heating | Cooling | Ventilation | Water heating | Lighting | Cooking | Refrigeration | Office equipment | Computing | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All commercial buildings | 6,357 | 6% | 14% | 18% | 2% | 17% | 2% | 9% | 1% | 7% | 24% |
| Office building | 1,329 | 6% | 10% | 28% | 1% | 17% | under 1% | 3% | 2% | 11% | 23% |
| Medical, dental or outpatient clinic | 257 | 4% | 8% | 31% | under 1% | 21% | 1% | 3% | 2% | 6% | 23% |
| Retail store or showroom | 338 | 4% | 13% | 25% | under 1% | 26% | 1% | 6% | 1% | 3% | 21% |
| Strip shopping centre | 208 | 9% | 11% | 15% | 6% | 20% | 1% | 16% | 1% | 4% | 17% |
| Grocery or convenience store | 91 | 4% | 4% | 7% | under 1% | 7% | 4% | 48% | under 1% | ||
| Any restaurant, café, bar or bakery | 218 | 6% | 12% | 11% | 5% | 7% | 17% | 27% | 1% | 1% | 13% |
| Sit-down restaurant or cafeteria | 132 | 4% | 12% | 11% | 5% | 8% | 18% | 29% | 1% | under 1% | 13% |
| Fast food or quick service | 54 | 9% | 13% | 13% | 6% | 6% | 16% | 23% | 1% | 1% | 14% |
| Warehouse or distribution centre | 712 | 7% | 17% | 8% | 1% | 27% | under 1% | 4% | 1% | 3% | 33% |
| Vehicle service or repair shop | 106 | 5% | 14% | 11% | 1% | 39% | 3% | 2% | 4% | 23% | |
| Repair shop, salon, laundry or other service | 349 | 8% | 15% | 11% | under 1% | 32% | under 1% | 3% | 1% | 3% | 28% |
| Hotel, motel or inn | 304 | 6% | 11% | 26% | 4% | 12% | 5% | 10% | 1% | 3% | 23% |
| Hospital | 276 | 2% | 12% | 29% | 1% | 12% | 3% | 4% | 1% | 7% | 29% |
| Nursing home or assisted living | 114 | 9% | 13% | 25% | 5% | 21% | 1% | 5% | 1% | 1% | 18% |
| K-12 school | 720 | 6% | 22% | 14% | 2% | 18% | 2% | 6% | 1% | 7% | 22% |
| College or university building | 153 | 3% | 13% | 19% | 2% | 16% | 1% | 3% | 1% | 9% | 34% |
| Place of worship | 271 | 6% | 23% | 18% | 1% | 21% | 3% | 6% | 2% | 2% | 19% |
| Gym, fitness or recreation facility | 148 | 12% | 33% | 9% | under 1% | 12% | 1% | 4% | 1% | 1% | 25% |
| Meeting, entertainment or other public assembly | 481 | 9% | 32% | 10% | under 1% | 12% | 1% | 6% | 1% | 2% | 25% |
Download as CSV, with each share’s relative standard error. Refrigerated warehouse (cold storage): too few surveyed buildings for a breakdown.
What each end use covers, and what moves it
- Space heating: 6% across all buildings
- Electric heat, including heat pumps and resistance heat. Small where the building heats with gas.
- Cooling: 14% across all buildings
- Air conditioning and chillers. It peaks on summer afternoons, which is often when the demand charge is set.
- Ventilation: 18% across all buildings
- Fans that move air through the building, often running every hour it is open and many hours it is not.
- Water heating: 2% across all buildings
- Electric water heaters.
- Lighting: 17% across all buildings
- Interior and exterior lighting. LED retrofits and occupancy controls are the usual levers.
- Cooking: 2% across all buildings
- Ranges, fryers, ovens and other cooking equipment.
- Refrigeration: 9% across all buildings
- Walk-in coolers, freezers and display cases. It runs around the clock, so it sits in the base load.
- Office equipment: 1% across all buildings
- Printers, copiers and other office equipment.
- Computing: 7% across all buildings
- Computers, monitors and servers, including server rooms and small data closets.
- Other: 24% across all buildings
- Everything the survey does not assign to the nine named uses: elevators, pumps, medical and lab equipment, signs, chargers and plug loads.
Which use matters most for a bill depends on when it runs as much as how much. A use that runs at the building’s peak, such as cooling on a summer afternoon, raises the demand charge as well as the kWh; a use that runs all night, such as refrigeration, raises the kWh and the base load. Load factor and interval data explain how to tell them apart on a real bill.
How these figures were made
- Source. EIA’s 2018 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, the federal survey of U.S. commercial buildings, published in 2022. For each building EIA estimates how its electricity divides between ten uses; these shares weight those estimates with the survey’s own weights.
- Checked against EIA’s own table. The weighted totals reproduce every figure EIA prints in its Table E5 (electricity by end use and building activity) to within rounding.
- Uncertain estimates are left out. A share whose relative standard error is above 50% is not shown, which is EIA’s own rule, and a type with fewer than 30 surveyed buildings gets no breakdown.
- Whole buildings, 2018. Equipment has changed since (LED lighting has spread), and a suite inside a larger building can differ from the whole.
For what a building of each type and size uses and costs, see cost per square foot and the cost estimator; each industry page carries its own breakdown.
Common questions
- What uses the most electricity in a commercial building?
- Taken across every U.S. commercial building, the largest named uses are ventilation (18% of electricity), lighting (17%) and cooling (14%), with 24% in other equipment, according to EIA’s 2018 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. In a grocery store refrigeration leads; in offices and hospitals, ventilation.
- How much of a restaurant’s electricity goes to refrigeration and cooking?
- In EIA’s 2018 building survey (218 surveyed buildings of this type), the largest named uses of electricity in a restaurant, café, bar or bakery were refrigeration (27%), cooking (17%) and cooling (12%). Refrigeration runs around the clock, so it sits in the base of the bill, while cooking and cooling add to the peak.
- What uses the most electricity in an office building?
- In EIA’s 2018 building survey (1,329 surveyed buildings of this type), the largest named uses of electricity in an office building were ventilation (28%), lighting (17%) and computing (11%). Fans that run outside occupied hours are a common source of avoidable use.
- Do these shares tell me where my own building’s electricity goes?
- No. They are survey estimates for whole buildings of a type in 2018, averaged with the survey’s weights. One building’s mix depends on its equipment, its hours and whether it heats with gas or electricity. Interval data from the meter, or submetering, shows where one building’s electricity goes.
A survey average cannot say where your own building’s electricity goes. The bill and the meter data can. Nobody calls unless you ask.