Release date: February 2017

Table WD1. Daily water consumption in large commercial buildings, 2012

All buildings over 200,000

square feet using water Water consumption

Total Consumption Consumption

Total consumption per building per thousand Consumption
Number of floorspace (million (thousand square feet per worker
buildings (million gallons gallons (gallons (gallons
(thousand) square feet) per day) per day) per day) per day)

All buildings 45 17,638 980 22 55.6 50.1

Building floorspace (square feet)

200,001 to 500,000 37 10,623 554 15 52.1 53.5
Over 500,000 8 7,014 426 54 60.8 46.4

Principal building activity

Education 9 2,407 96 11 39.9 68.4
Health care 4 2,086 265 65 127.0 70.8
Inpatient 3 1,896 257 74 135.5 74.3
Outpatient 1 190 8 13 42.6 28.4
Lodging 4 1,661 189 50 113.8 236.3
Mercantile 6 1,991 68 12 34.3 45.7
Retail (other than mall) Q Q Q Q Q Q
Enclosed and strip malls 4 1,501 48 13 32.2 44.5
Office 9 4,167 167 18 40.0 17.6
Public assembly 3 1,376 97 33 70.2 101.0
Public order and safety 1 451 52 38 115.0 Q
Religious worship Q Q Q Q Q Q
Service Q Q Q Q Q Q
Warehouse and storage 8 2,870 27 3 9.3 29.7
Other 1 237 12 19 48.9 72.4
Vacant Q Q Q Q Q Q

Year constructed
Before 1920 1 568 32 29 57.1 67.6
1920 to 1945 2 1,292 73 30 56.5 37.4
1946 to 1959 4 1,243 67 17 54.1 56.6
1960 to 1969 5 2,043 113 21 55.5 51.7
1970 to 1979 5 2,333 145 28 62.2 43.3
1980 to 1989 11 3,829 207 20 53.9 50.9
1990 to 1999 8 2,934 155 21 53.0 54.7
2000 to 2003 3 1,310 57 18 43.3 43.0
2004 to 2007 3 1,371 84 24 61.3 66.2
2008 to 2012 2 715 46 19 64.9 51.9
Table WD1. Daily water consumption in large commercial buildings, 2012

All buildings over 200,000

square feet using water Water consumption

Total Consumption Consumption

Total consumption per building per thousand Consumption
Number of floorspace (million (thousand square feet per worker
buildings (million gallons gallons (gallons (gallons
(thousand) square feet) per day) per day) per day) per day)

All buildings 45 17,638 980 22 55.6 50.1

Census region and division

Northeast 9 3,931 215 23 54.8 37.5
New England 2 797 36 15 44.8 50.9
Middle Atlantic 7 3,134 180 25 57.4 35.6
Midwest 11 4,095 206 18 50.4 48.5
East North Central 9 3,121 160 18 51.3 50.9
West North Central 2 974 46 19 47.4 41.5
South 16 6,251 345 22 55.2 58.1
South Atlantic 9 3,772 209 23 55.5 56.5
East South Central 2 821 45 19 54.2 65.4
West South Central 4 1,658 91 21 54.9 58.8
West 9 3,361 213 24 63.5 59.2
Mountain 3 1,320 86 26 64.9 70.2
Pacific 6 2,041 128 23 62.6 53.6

Climate region1
Very cold/Cold 18 6,655 339 19 50.9 47.2
Mixed-humid 15 6,396 354 23 55.4 46.4
Mixed-dry/Hot-dry 5 1,865 116 22 62.1 63.6
Hot-humid 5 2,176 142 26 65.1 65.6
Marine 1 546 30 22 54.1 38.8

Number of workers (main shift)

Fewer than 5 Q Q Q Q Q Q
5 to 9 Q Q Q Q Q Q
10 to 19 Q Q Q Q Q Q
20 to 49 2 662 19 8 28.6 249.6
50 to 99 6 1,872 95 16 50.5 226.1
100 to 249 16 4,923 220 14 44.7 91.3
250 or more 19 9,560 634 34 66.3 38.1

Weekly operating hours

Fewer than 40 Q Q Q Q Q Q
40 to 48 4 1,323 38 9 28.5 33.5
49 to 60 9 3,284 114 12 34.6 24.6
61 to 84 9 3,537 118 13 33.2 28.2
85 to 167 6 2,258 63 10 28.1 44.4
Open continuously 15 7,024 643 42 91.6 79.3
Table WD1. Daily water consumption in large commercial buildings, 2012

All buildings over 200,000

square feet using water Water consumption

Total Consumption Consumption

Total consumption per building per thousand Consumption
Number of floorspace (million (thousand square feet per worker
buildings (million gallons gallons (gallons (gallons
(thousand) square feet) per day) per day) per day) per day)

All buildings 45 17,638 980 22 55.6 50.1

Energy end uses

(more than one may apply)
Buildings with space heating 44 17,078 953 22 55.8 49.6
Buildings with cooling 45 17,476 979 22 56.0 50.1
Buildings with water heating 44 17,303 976 22 56.4 50.2
Buildings with cooking 30 12,291 836 28 68.0 54.0
Buildings with manufacturing 3 924 21 8 22.7 28.1
Buildings with electricity
generation 29 12,495 780 27 62.5 51.8

Heating equipment
(more than one may apply)
Heat pumps 6 2,607 180 28 69.2 52.5
Furnaces 2 750 38 19 50.7 80.9
Individual space heaters 13 5,181 253 19 48.9 47.6
District heat 7 3,526 223 32 63.2 42.3
Boilers 20 7,400 528 27 71.3 57.7
Packaged heating units 25 9,216 460 18 49.9 51.6
Other Q Q Q Q Q Q

Cooling equipment
(more than one may apply)
Residential-type central air
conditioners 3 748 44 17 58.6 105.2
Heat pumps 6 2,495 174 28 69.6 50.7
Individual air conditioners 8 3,352 218 27 65.1 52.7
District chilled water 5 2,370 149 31 62.9 49.2
Central chillers 22 9,272 657 30 70.9 51.3
Packaged air conditioning units 28 10,741 558 20 51.9 51.7
Swamp coolers 1 394 33 33 84.7 97.0
Other Q Q Q Q Q Q

Water-heating equipment
Centralized system 21 7,923 499 24 63.0 58.0
Distributed system 7 2,735 103 15 37.5 36.1
Combination of centralized and
distributed system 16 6,645 374 23 56.3 46.8
Table WD1. Daily water consumption in large commercial buildings, 2012

All buildings over 200,000

square feet using water Water consumption

Total Consumption Consumption

Total consumption per building per thousand Consumption
Number of floorspace (million (thousand square feet per worker
buildings (million gallons gallons (gallons (gallons
(thousand) square feet) per day) per day) per day) per day)

All buildings 45 17,638 980 22 55.6 50.1

Refrigeration equipment
(more than one may apply)
Any refrigeration 43 17,015 970 22 57.0 50.4
Walk-in units 27 11,214 783 29 69.9 57.6
Cases or cabinets 27 11,101 734 27 66.2 54.5
Large cold storage areas 5 1,942 131 28 67.5 77.7
Commercial ice makers 31 12,682 831 27 65.5 54.7
Residential-type or compact units 36 14,281 799 22 56.0 47.4
Vending machines 38 15,192 879 23 57.8 50.5
No refrigeration 2 622 10 5 16.6 32.8

Food preparation or serving areas

in non-food service buildings
(more than one may apply)
Snack bar or concession stand 11 5,350 367 33 68.5 56.8
Fast food or small restaurant 11 4,825 328 31 68.0 54.9
Cafeteria or large restaurant 17 7,619 574 34 75.4 57.2
Commercial kitchen/
food preparation area 16 6,740 564 35 83.7 80.3
Small kitchen area 8 3,905 262 31 67.1 51.3

Separate computer areas

Data center or server farm 16 7,199 470 30 65.4 43.0

Special activities or equipment

contributing to water use
Sterilizers or autoclaves 7 2,930 331 50 112.8 70.3
Commercial ice makers 31 12,682 831 27 65.5 54.7
Activities with large amounts of
hot water required 24 9,782 738 31 75.4 65.9
Laundry in building 2 1,128 130 55 115.4 196.9
Indoor swimming pool 4 1,514 137 36 90.6 160.2

1
These climate regions were created by the Building America program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Q = Data withheld either because the Relative Standard Error (RSE) was greater than 50 percent or fewer than 20 buildings were sampled.
Notes: ● Because of rounding, data may not sum to totals. ● See Guide to the 2012 CBECS Detailed Tables or CBECS Terminology for definition
of terms used in these tables and/or comparison of differences with prior CBECS tables. Both references can be accessed from
http://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/data/2012/
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Office of Energy Consumption and Efficiency Statistics, Form EIA-871A of the 2012
Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey.
Release date: February 2017

RSEs for Table WD1. Daily water consumption in large commercial buildings, 2012

All buildings over 200,000

square feet using water RSEs for water consumption

RSEs for
RSEs for RSEs for consumption RSEs for
number of RSEs for total RSEs for total consumption per thousand consumption
buildings floorspace consumption per building square feet per worker

All buildings 6.0 5.7 6.0 4.7 3.6 4.8

Building floorspace (square feet)

200,001 to 500,000 6.8 6.5 7.5 4.8 4.5 6.3
Over 500,000 9.2 9.6 9.9 6.5 5.2 6.9

Principal building activity

Education 14.5 14.6 18.0 10.4 8.9 10.1
Health care 14.2 9.2 7.7 9.5 3.8 3.6
Inpatient 14.7 8.7 7.8 10.2 2.8 3.3
Outpatient 39.2 37.6 33.9 17.7 13.3 22.3
Lodging 16.8 19.5 16.6 10.2 7.9 13.8
Mercantile 19.3 15.8 17.2 7.0 3.7 9.6
Retail (other than mall) 30.9 29.3 34.1 10.0 9.8 17.8
Enclosed and strip malls 23.1 17.6 18.8 10.1 2.7 10.8
Office 10.6 11.7 12.7 7.3 3.6 5.0
Public assembly 26.2 23.1 21.4 19.2 13.6 14.1
Public order and safety 34.2 29.6 32.6 23.8 24.0 115.3
Religious worship 52.8 55.3 65.7 40.9 22.7 34.2
Service 47.9 80.6 65.1 31.3 16.4 20.0
Warehouse and storage 14.7 15.9 16.4 9.8 9.4 11.9
Other 36.8 33.2 28.4 30.0 19.5 17.4
Vacant 39.2 42.0 39.7 36.0 37.3 27.4

Year constructed
Before 1920 27.3 27.5 32.7 24.3 23.2 26.1
1920 to 1945 16.9 14.1 21.1 16.2 18.6 20.6
1946 to 1959 19.4 16.7 15.0 13.8 10.2 19.5
1960 to 1969 15.2 14.6 14.9 11.5 8.8 18.7
1970 to 1979 12.3 10.4 10.0 9.9 6.2 9.7
1980 to 1989 12.5 10.3 11.6 9.7 7.4 11.3
1990 to 1999 12.7 10.8 14.1 10.6 9.7 12.4
2000 to 2003 17.8 18.1 20.5 19.0 12.5 14.0
2004 to 2007 17.2 19.0 20.8 18.9 10.5 12.2
2008 to 2012 35.2 29.2 34.9 26.1 23.1 11.5
RSEs for Table WD1. Daily water consumption in large commercial buildings, 2012

All buildings over 200,000

square feet using water RSEs for water consumption

RSEs for
RSEs for RSEs for consumption RSEs for
number of RSEs for total RSEs for total consumption per thousand consumption
buildings floorspace consumption per building square feet per worker

All buildings 6.0 5.7 6.0 4.7 3.6 4.8

Census region and division

Northeast 11.5 8.5 10.3 8.0 7.8 7.1
New England 27.2 25.4 23.0 19.4 20.8 17.8
Middle Atlantic 12.3 8.5 11.4 8.1 8.0 7.5
Midwest 11.1 9.2 10.7 10.1 7.2 11.0
East North Central 13.4 10.9 13.1 12.2 8.7 13.9
West North Central 14.8 15.7 13.1 15.3 11.2 15.2
South 11.1 11.6 10.4 8.5 6.5 9.4
South Atlantic 15.2 15.8 14.7 11.0 8.0 12.1
East South Central 30.5 36.5 17.8 24.8 28.8 42.6
West South Central 18.9 18.1 18.6 16.9 12.5 12.1
West 15.9 15.3 16.8 9.1 6.8 9.4
Mountain 16.4 26.9 24.5 16.6 9.2 14.0
Pacific 23.5 18.3 23.0 10.0 10.0 13.3

Climate region1
Very cold/Cold 9.7 9.5 10.2 8.3 5.3 7.5
Mixed-humid 13.7 12.2 11.2 9.1 6.9 8.2
Mixed-dry/Hot-dry 29.1 25.0 26.7 10.8 12.0 11.1
Hot-humid 17.3 14.6 16.8 12.4 9.2 13.0
Marine 25.8 23.2 23.3 17.4 12.1 18.1

Number of workers (main shift)

Fewer than 5 40.8 40.4 90.4 83.0 84.1 87.4
5 to 9 41.3 40.2 50.3 42.8 42.9 45.0
10 to 19 27.9 28.8 54.7 43.6 44.5 40.0
20 to 49 22.5 23.1 27.4 18.7 18.1 21.8
50 to 99 14.5 14.5 22.2 17.4 16.1 18.0
100 to 249 11.0 10.1 12.6 8.9 8.5 9.4
250 or more 7.1 7.5 7.6 5.1 3.7 4.8

Weekly operating hours

Fewer than 40 44.1 42.9 50.9 34.2 26.6 17.0
40 to 48 17.1 15.6 19.0 15.3 12.1 16.1
49 to 60 12.4 11.3 16.4 12.0 10.6 15.0
61 to 84 11.2 8.9 9.9 7.4 4.1 7.0
85 to 167 13.5 15.0 19.1 15.8 14.3 11.6
Open continuously 8.4 7.5 7.0 6.2 4.6 5.5
RSEs for Table WD1. Daily water consumption in large commercial buildings, 2012

All buildings over 200,000

square feet using water RSEs for water consumption

RSEs for
RSEs for RSEs for consumption RSEs for
number of RSEs for total RSEs for total consumption per thousand consumption
buildings floorspace consumption per building square feet per worker

All buildings 6.0 5.7 6.0 4.7 3.6 4.8

Energy end uses

(more than one may apply)
Buildings with space heating 6.1 5.8 5.9 4.6 3.6 4.7
Buildings with cooling 6.1 5.8 6.0 4.7 3.6 4.8
Buildings with water heating 6.1 5.8 6.0 4.6 3.5 4.8
Buildings with cooking 7.1 6.1 6.3 5.6 3.3 5.1
Buildings with manufacturing 21.4 18.2 25.9 27.2 20.5 9.6
Buildings with electricity
generation 6.9 6.9 6.9 4.9 3.7 5.8

Heating equipment
(more than one may apply)
Heat pumps 15.1 13.0 12.4 10.4 7.6 10.8
Furnaces 21.7 18.1 17.7 16.9 12.9 16.6
Individual space heaters 9.9 9.3 9.2 9.4 7.8 7.8
District heat 15.0 13.8 12.9 11.0 8.1 7.8
Boilers 9.1 7.4 7.9 6.9 4.7 7.1
Packaged heating units 7.4 6.5 7.7 5.8 5.0 6.1
Other 34.3 31.9 33.4 20.4 16.2 7.1

Cooling equipment
(more than one may apply)
Residential-type central air
conditioners 29.4 25.3 35.2 28.5 25.8 30.6
Heat pumps 14.9 12.5 12.0 10.7 7.7 13.0
Individual air conditioners 10.9 10.6 12.0 9.7 8.1 11.9
District chilled water 19.8 19.4 16.0 15.1 7.8 11.0
Central chillers 7.8 6.4 6.8 6.0 4.1 5.9
Packaged air conditioning units 7.3 6.0 7.2 5.9 5.3 6.0
Swamp coolers 28.2 23.1 24.0 26.2 16.2 22.6
Other 46.6 37.7 34.9 17.7 11.4 22.0

Water-heating equipment
Centralized system 9.3 8.9 9.3 6.9 4.6 7.3
Distributed system 11.7 10.8 16.5 13.9 13.5 15.3
Combination of centralized and
distributed system 8.1 6.8 7.6 6.7 5.1 6.5
RSEs for Table WD1. Daily water consumption in large commercial buildings, 2012

All buildings over 200,000

square feet using water RSEs for water consumption

RSEs for
RSEs for RSEs for consumption RSEs for
number of RSEs for total RSEs for total consumption per thousand consumption
buildings floorspace consumption per building square feet per worker

All buildings 6.0 5.7 6.0 4.7 3.6 4.8

Refrigeration equipment
(more than one may apply)
Any refrigeration 6.1 5.6 6.0 4.7 3.6 4.8
Walk-in units 7.4 6.3 6.5 5.8 3.4 5.7
Cases or cabinets 7.9 7.0 6.9 5.8 4.1 6.3
Large cold storage areas 17.3 15.4 14.5 15.3 9.3 16.2
Commercial ice makers 7.3 6.2 6.4 5.5 3.9 5.4
Residential-type or compact units 6.4 6.1 5.9 5.1 3.6 4.8
Vending machines 6.5 6.1 6.2 4.9 3.8 5.2
No refrigeration 22.3 21.4 25.7 24.1 22.4 16.9

Food preparation or serving areas

in non-food service buildings
(more than one may apply)
Snack bar or concession stand 9.5 9.8 10.1 8.2 4.8 8.0
Fast food or small restaurant 11.5 8.6 9.0 10.6 5.2 9.0
Cafeteria or large restaurant 7.8 7.1 6.8 6.6 4.1 6.5
Commercial kitchen/
food preparation area 8.9 8.2 7.6 7.3 4.9 7.1
Small kitchen area 9.9 10.6 11.0 9.2 5.9 11.1

Separate computer areas

Data center or server farm 8.9 8.3 8.3 6.8 4.6 6.5

Special activities or equipment

contributing to water use
Sterilizers or autoclaves 12.0 8.6 8.3 8.0 4.9 6.8
Commercial ice makers 7.3 6.2 6.4 5.5 3.9 5.4
Activities with large amounts of
hot water required 8.4 7.4 7.1 6.1 3.9 6.9
Laundry in building 20.2 25.3 19.1 14.1 11.9 13.4
Indoor swimming pool 15.8 18.3 17.9 12.9 9.8 12.4