Much less Than One-Third Of U.S. Business Buildings Have been All-Electrical In 2018

Fewer than one-third of U.S. business buildings had been all-electric in 2018, and all-electric business buildings had been most prevalent within the South, in accordance with knowledge from our Business Buildings Vitality Consumption Survey (CBECS). As of 2018, 31%, or 1.8 million business buildings, had been all-electric nationwide.

Practically half of all-electric U.S. buildings had been concentrated in a single census area, the South. The South had extra business buildings than another area, and people buildings had been much less probably than these in different areas to make use of pure fuel for area heating. Nearly one-quarter of business buildings within the Northeast used gasoline oil for area heating, which is uncommon in different areas. Solely 8% of U.S. all-electric buildings, 138,000, had been within the Northeast.

Buildings might be labeled as all-electric in several methods. All-electric buildings are outlined right here as buildings that consumed solely electrical energy for finish makes use of that electrical energy can carry out, comparable to area heating, cooling, water heating, and cooking. Different power sources comparable to photo voltaic, pure fuel, and gasoline oil might have been consumed for on-site electrical energy technology.

Regardless of all-electric buildings accounting for 31% of the business U.S. constructing inventory, all-electric buildings totaled solely 18% of complete U.S. business floorspace in 2018. On common, all-electric buildings had been 9,700 sq. toes, or 40% smaller than the typical U.S. business constructing.

House heating, cooling, water heating, and cooking are main finish makes use of in business buildings that may be all-electric or use different sources. Most business buildings had area heating (83%), however lower than one-third of buildings used solely electrical energy for area heating. In distinction, 78% of business buildings had area cooling and 99% of these buildings used solely electrical energy for cooling. Different cooling power sources included district chilled water and pure fuel.

The power supply used for area heating impacts the kind of heating tools used. In 2018, packaged heating items and furnaces had been the most typical kind of heating tools in business buildings. Nonetheless, warmth pumps had been the second-most widespread tools kind when solely electrical energy was used for area heating. Practically one-quarter of U.S. business buildings heated solely by electrical energy used a warmth pump in 2018.

CBECS is the one nationally consultant survey that collects details about U.S. constructing traits and power use in business buildings. The CBECS course of spans greater than 4 years, from creating the pattern body and survey questionnaire to releasing knowledge to the general public. We launched our closing 2018 CBECS knowledge in December 2022. You possibly can study extra about buildings that use solely electrical energy for choose finish makes use of by reviewing our new tables.

Principal contributors: Stacy Angel, Joelle Michaels, Initially printed on EIA’s In the present day in Vitality weblog.