Benchmarking details

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Benchmarking Overview
What are the benefits or benchmarking?
US EPA Benchmarking Tool

Communicate your success
Additional materials and links (Benchmarking Resource Library)

Benchmarking Overview

Benchmarking energy consumption in buildings means comparing how much energy is used in a building to an average or theoretical standard. How much energy a building should use varies widely according to the local climate and weather, how the building is used, and how densely people and equipment are configured in the building. Additionally, how and to what extent buildings are conditioned can have a significant impact on target energy consumption. Whatever the case, you can improve the energy performance of your building by benchmarking to track changes in energy performance over time and to compare your building to others.

What are the benefits of benchmarking?

Prioritize investments in your building portfolio. Applied across a portfolio of buildings, benchmarking provides the foundation for superior energy management decisions, ranging from identifying the top performers to prioritizing the best candidates for upgrades.
Determine potential savings. By comparing a benchmarking score to a "target score," benchmarking can suggest the energy savings potential of raising efficiency to, or above, average.
Monitor changes. Scoring a building over a period of time can help evaluate the effectiveness of changes in equipment or management.
Demonstrate proactive management of energy issues. Having a building's energy consumption data summarized and documented helps answer questions about energy use from upper management, outside vendors, investors, or local government agencies.
Receive positive publicity. Being able to document a building�s improved energy efficiency or reduced energy consumption, provides a basis to communicate an environmentally-friendly image.

The US EPA Benchmarking Tool

The US EPA has developed a benchmarking tool for the ENERGY STAR program based on energy consumption, operating characteristics, and management practices of buildings in the US. The Tool can be used to produce benchmarking scores for buildings outside the US, but scores must be interpreted with caution. Under certain conditions, a building may receive a high benchmarking score (which would normally indicate high energy efficiency), but may not, in fact, be operating efficiently. This would primarily occur in situations where cooling, heating, and/or humidity control practices were significantly different than the assumptions for US buildings built into the tool.

In general, scores for buildings outside the US are the most reliable when buildings are conditioned to international Class A standards. Class A is a term that refers to the top of the commercial global real estate market. Class A conditioning generally includes comfort criteria as follows:

Class A Standards
Criteria	Cooling Season	Heating Season
Temperature of room	23 – 26 deg C (73 – 79 deg F)	20 – 24 deg C(68 – 75 deg F)
Humidity	40 - 70%	40 - 70%
Carbon Dioxide	Less than 1000 ppm	Less than 1000 ppm
Light Levels	In accordance with IES standards	In accordance with IES standards

Sources: ASHRAE Standard 55 (US), Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, Occupational Safety and Health Services, Department of Labour, Government of New Zealand, Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

If a building does not meet the criteria listed above, the US EPA Benchmarking Tool will not provide an accurate assessment. Many buildings around the world (and in the US) come close to these standards and aspire to provide Class A comfort and attract high-end tenants. For aspiring Class A buildings, the US EPA Benchmarking Tool can assist in defining energy performance targets as interior comfort is improved.

Use the US EPA Benchmarking Tool to score your building based on US energy-use data, adjusted for key operating variables (building size, occupant density, operating hours, plug loads) and for climate and weather in your city.

To get ready to generate a score, go to Submit Benchmarking Data.

Interpreting the score from the US EPA Benchmarking Tool

The Tool calculates an energy-efficiency score on a scale of 1 to 100, where a score of 50 is average for US buildings. The score is adjusted for key operating variables including building size, occupant density, operating hours, plug loads, climate, and weather. The resulting score indicates how a building's energy efficiency compares, considering the operating variables. A score of 60 for a building in the US, for example, would signify efficiency better than 60 percent of comparable buildings. Scores for buildings outside the US must be interpreted with caution. For buildings in the US, scores can be interpreted as follows:

A building with a low score (below 30) merits quick investigation. Why is energy use high? Is there equipment running out of control? Investing in these buildings will have a high return on investment. Investigate and understand why your building has higher than average energy use, then consider upgrades to energy-efficient lighting.
Buildings with mid-range scores still have room for significant savings from new equipment, improved operations and maintenance (O&M), or increased awareness of energy management opportunities. See Tools and Resources to Improve Energy Efficiency to identify opportunities.
Buildings that receive high scores can, in some cases, offer insight into successful energy management practices and technologies. Or, there may be comfort issues, as discussed above. Examine these buildings to see if they offer lessons about improving energy performance or comfort.

Communicate your success

Additional materials and links (Benchmarking Resource Library)