Title: Reading
Course: GFM 101 Fundamentals of Green Facilities Management > Section: GFM 101 Fundamentals of Green Facilities Management

Reading

(1/2)
Building Energy Consumption. Opportunities For Energy Savings.

The decline in U.S. energy consumption can be attributed to the economic recession, which has had a particularly hard impact on the building sector. Total energy expenditures in the building sector decreased 8% to 417.8 billion from 2008 to 2009, the largest percent drop in the last 30 years. (1.2.3) The value of new building construction dropped again for the fourth year in a row and was valued at 377.4 billion, 55% less than at its peak in 2006, when new building construction was valued at 843.6 billion. (1.3.2) As expected, the number of people employed in architecture and construction has also decreased since 2006. More than 7.9 million people were employed in the two industries then, compared to 5.7 million in 2010, a 27% drop. (1.3.7).

Forty-one percent of U.S. primary energy was consumed by the buildings sector, compared to 30% by the industrial sector and 29% by the transportation sector. Of the 39 quads consumed in the buildings sector, homes accounted for 54% and commercial buildings accounted for 46% (1.1.3). Of the energy sources used by the U.S. buildings sector, 75% came from fossil fuels, 16% from nuclear generation, and 9% from renewables. (1.1.8) .

Readings:

Click here to read article titled Buildings Energy Data Book (benchmarking stats and more).
Click here to read article from the National Institute of Building Sciences titled Energy Analysis Tools.
Click here to read article and learn the Facility Energy Decision System (FEDS) from the National Institute of Building Sciences.