Food service buildings including restaurants are nearly four times more energy intensive than commercial buildings are on average in the United States. Food service buildings were the smallest commercial building type, averaging 4,800 square feet per building, or less than one-third the size of the average commercial building (16,300 square feet), according to our recently published 2018 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). Despite the small footprint, they used 263 thousand British thermal units per square foot (MBtu/sf) on average, compared to (70 MBtu/sf) for the average commercial building. We calculate energy intensity for each building type by dividing the total consumption of major fuels (electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and district heat) by the total floorspace.

CBECS defines principal building activity as the activity or function occupying the most floorspace in a building. Strip shopping centers and enclosed malls, which contain a variety of activities, are included in the mercantile building type. CBECS defines food service buildings as those used for selling prepared food and beverages, such as restaurants, cafeterias, bars, coffee shops, and catering services.

Among all the building types, food service buildings used proportionately more energy for cooking (40%). Refrigeration accounted for the second-largest share (15%) of these buildings’ end-use consumption, followed by space heating (12%). All other end uses each accounted for 7% or less of end-use consumption.

CBECS is the only nationally representative survey that collects information about U.S. building characteristics and energy use in commercial buildings. CBECS publishes a variety of data including building size, activity, energy sources, energy end uses, operating hours, and more.

The CBECS survey process spans more than four years, from developing the sample frame and survey questionnaire to releasing data to the public. We recently released a set of new reports that show how the 14 CBECS building types contribute to building stock, floorspace, energy consumption, and expenditures. Each report concludes with a section on equipment specific to the building type.