What is Energy Use Intensity (EUI)?
Want a quick way to understand your building’s energy efficiency? Start with the Energy Use Intensity (EUI)—a simple metric showing how much energy your building uses per square metre (GJ/m²) or per square foot (kBtu/ft²) per year.
Here’s a tool to estimate your building’s EUI.
But knowing your EUI isn’t enough on its own. The key is context: is that number good, or could it be better?
That’s where ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® (ESPM) comes in. It’s a free, web-based tool that benchmarks your EUI against the national median for similar buildings. That comparison helps you see where your building stands—and what’s realistically achievable.
As a quick check without using software, you can compare your EUI to the medians in this list of EUIs by property type for US buildings and this list for Canadian buildings.
Managing multiple buildings? Compare their EUIs side by side as shown below to find your top performers and biggest opportunities.
Charting your buildings by % variance from the national median EUI—as shown below—makes it easy to spot which sites are performing well and which are using more energy than they should.
It’s also a good idea to track EUI over time. If it’s rising year over year, it could signal a problem. Use weather-normalized EUI to account for year-over-year changes in weather.
In the real-world example below, the EUI increased by 13% over two years. This should be a red flag to the building owner.
And if your EUI is already below the national median? Congratulations—you’re ahead of the curve. There may still be opportunities to improve, but you’re starting from a strong position.
Once you know where you stand, set realistic goals—and track your progress.
Energy Star Portfolio Manager® is easy to use, well-documented, and free. So give it a try. And if you’d like some help getting started, GRCL is here for you. Because if you’re not managing your energy—who is?
The 2-Minute Payback is GRCL’s blog of energy-saving tips and tools for busy building managers. This post was written by Chuck Faulkner.
