Ranking Your Convenience Store's Energy Performance

To rate your building, use the national plot below:

  1. Locate your building's annual total energy use intensity on the x-axis.

  2. Move up vertically to the curve and then left to the y-axis for your rating -
    the percent of similar buildings in the nation less efficient than yours.

Energy use intensity distributions of U.S.
convenience stores by region
(cumulative histograms)

The lower your percentage rating, the higher your building's potential for energy use and cost reductions. If your building ranks below 30%, there is often large energy cost savings available through improved energy management or building/system upgrades. Substantial opportunities are also often achievable for buildings rating between 30 and 50%. Recognize that a high rating does not always guarantee high savings potential. If your building has significantly longer operating hours, higher occupant density (people/sq. ft.), or lots of computers in comparison to its peers, it may appear inefficient (low rating). In most buildings, however, these types of situations are not significant enough to make a dramatic difference in the percentile rating for an individual building.

Using your energy use rating, you can estimate your energy use and cost reduction potentials from the link: