How Much Water Does An Office Worker Use

2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey: Water Consumption in Large Buildings Summary

CBECS 2012 - Release engagement: February 9, 2017

Using h2o consumption data from the Commercial Buildings Free energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), Eia estimates that the 46,000 [one] large commercial buildings (greater than 200,000 square anxiety) used almost 359 billion gallons of water (980 million gallons per day) in 2012. This level represents an estimated 2.3% of the total public h2o supply in the United states of america [2]. On average, these buildings used 7.nine meg gallons per edifice, twenty gallons per square foot, and eighteen,400 gallons per worker in 2012. On a daily basis, they used an average of 22,000 gallons per edifice, 55.6 gallons per thousand square anxiety, and fifty.ane gallons per worker.

The types of buildings that are the most intensive water users are open around the clock and accept activities inside them that use large amounts of water. Inpatient healthcare buildings were the virtually intensive users of h2o in 2012, averaging about 50 gallons per square foot per year. Public order and safe buildings (which include prisons) and lodging buildings (which includes hotels) were the next almost intensive, each averaging about 42 gallons per square pes. Warehouse and storage buildings used only 3.4 gallons per foursquare foot, making them the least water intensive of the large buildings.

Figure 1. Inpatient healthcare buildings were the most intensive users of water among large commercial buildings in 2012

Water use per square pes in large buildings does non vary significantly by the historic period of the building, with the exception of inpatient healthcare buildings. Large buildings constructed before 1960, between 1960 and 1999, and between 2000 and 2012 all used well-nigh twenty gallons per square human foot in 2012. Within edifice types, such as part and nonrefrigerated warehouse, the usage per square foot is almost the same for the dissimilar age groups evaluated. Nevertheless, newer inpatient healthcare buildings used less h2o per foursquare foot than older buildings. Inpatient healthcare buildings constructed before 1960 used 55 gallons per square foot compared to 45 gallons per square in buildings synthetic in 2000 or later, a statistically significant deviation.

Figure 2. Water intensity varies little by year of construction except in inpatient healthcare buildings

Some edifice types use h2o disproportionately compared to their share of the total number of big buildings and their full floorspace. Although inpatient healthcare buildings made up only eleven% of the big commercial edifice floorspace and seven% of the total number of large buildings, they accounted for 26% of the total water consumption in large commercial buildings in 2012. Lodging buildings fabricated up nine% of both the floorspace and the total number of large buildings, just they consumed 19% of the total h2o in large buildings. These two edifice types combined accounted for most half of the total large commercial building h2o consumption in 2012, while making up only well-nigh 20% of the total floorspace and full number of buildings.

Inpatient healthcare and lodging buildings accounted for almost half the total large building water consumption but were a much smaller share of the total building count in 2012

2012 CBECS Large Buildings Water Usage Information

A summary of the data is provided in ii detailed tables:

Table W1. Water consumption in large commercial buildings
Table WD1. Daily water consumption in big commercial buildings

A 2012 CBECS public employ microdata file on big buildings h2o usage is bachelor that contains untabulated records about individual buildings. This file is published so that information users tin can create custom tables that are not available in this report.

The microdata file contains 1,129 records. They stand for commercial buildings larger than 200,000 square feet in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each record corresponds to a single responding, in-scope, sampled building. The large buildings sample represents an estimated 46,000 full buildings in the United States.

Data are available in two formats: a CSV (comma delimited) file and a SAS information file. The variable and response codebook contains the variable length, type, labels, and descriptions of the response codes for each variable. The SAS format codes can exist used to assign formats to variables in SAS.

File name	Format	Release date
User'south Guide to the 2012 CBECS Big Buildings Water Usage Public Employ Files	PDF	Feb 2017
2012 CBECS large buildings h2o usage microdata	SAS	February 2017
2012 CBECS big buildings water usage microdata	CSV	February 2017
Variable and response codebook	XLS	February 2017
SAS format codes	SAS	May 2016
Instance using public use data: Tabular array W1	XLS	February 2017

_____________________________

Footnotes

1. There are an estimated 46,000 large commercial buildings that are greater than 200,000 square feet. An estimated 45,000 of the large buildings employ water.

two. The USGS Water Utilize Survey estimates that 42,000 million gallons per day were withdrawn for public supply in 2010, the most recent year for which data are available.

Specific questions on this production may be directed to Katie Lewis.