[BLDG-SIM] Unconditioned space area included in Building Area of CBECS?

[Griffith, Brent]

If you dig around on the EIA site, you can find the wording of the
original questions.  The area question (SQFT8) had the following
language for the 2003 survey.  "What is the gross or total square
footage of all the space in this building, both finished and unfinished,
including basements, hallways, lobbies, stairways, elevator shafts and
indoor parking levels."

 

Maybe that answers your question but there is a lot more to it and one
should be very careful.  The values EIA reports for SQFT8 are NOT the
raw values reported by respondents.  EIA masks the identity of
individual buildings by shifting the area values in some unknown way.
They balance the area shifts with appropriate changes in the weighting
factors so that product of area and weighting factor are okay.  But, for
example, using SQFT8 data to calculate Energy Use Intensity (annual
energy per unit area) is not very accurate for an individual building.
I get very uncomfortable using CBECS data for area-normalized metrics
unless they are derived from more than about 100 samples.  

 

________________________________

From: BLDG-SIM at gard.com [mailto:BLDG-SIM at gard.com] On Behalf Of Eric
Yang
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 2:25 PM
To: BLDG-SIM at gard.com
Subject: [BLDG-SIM] Unconditioned space area included in Building Area
of CBECS?

 

Greetings,

 

I am trying to compare the building energy usage to the data of
Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS).  I am not sure
whether the unconditioned parking garage (below-grade) shall be included
in the total building area?   The energy was included in the
calculation, including lighting and fan energy. 

 

It would be helpful to know how the building square footage information
was surveyed into the database 

(Database link: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs/contents.html) 

 

Any suggestions or information will be appreciated.  Thanks.

 

 

Eric Yang, 

CEM, LEED.A.P

SmithGroup

1850 K Street, NW, Suite 250

Washington, DC 20006

t  202.974.4555 (direct)

f. 202.974.4500

eric.yang at smithgroup.com 

www.smithgroup.com <http://www.smithgroup.com/> 

 

 

 
 
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