Get Clarity Fast: Benchmark Your Building with EnergyCAP’s Free Calculator

Managing energy use has always been important, but as energy prices surge and budgets tighten, it’s become mission-critical.

The first step to reducing your utility bills is knowing where to look. That’s why we’ve launched a free Building Energy Benchmarking Calculator—a simple, no-login-required tool to help you quickly assess your building’s energy performance and start identifying opportunities to cut costs and reduce emissions.

What the Benchmarking Calculator does

With just a few basic inputs: building type, square footage, and annual utility consumption, the calculator provides:

• A quick energy use intensity (EUI) calculation, offering a standardized way to compare energy consumption.
• Instant feedback on where your building falls compared to your peers across the country.

Our calculator uses the latest CBECs data, provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration and used in the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (ESPM) program. This tool is helpful for building owners, sustainability teams, and facilities managers who want to get a snapshot of their energy performance without waiting for full audits or ESPM results.

How do I know what my annual utility consumption is?

To use the Building Energy Benchmarking Calculator, you’ll need your building’s annual utility consumption. Not sure where to find it? Here’s how:

• Check your utility bills: Your total usage (in kWh for electricity, therms or CCF for natural gas, gallons for fuel oil, etc.) is listed monthly. Add up a full year’s worth of usage by source.
• Convert to BTUs: Benchmarking calculations standardize energy use into British Thermal Units (BTUs) so electricity, gas, and other fuels can be compared apples to apples. Enter your annual usage for each commodity into the Energy Information Administration’s energy conversion calculator to convert everything to BTU, add your total BTUs together, then enter the totaled number into the calculator.

Here’s an example: The Empire State Building uses an estimated 136,480,000,000 BTUs annually, about the same as 3,600 average U.S. homes. That might seem like a lot, but with over 2.7 million square feet and an EUI under 50, it’s among the most efficient buildings in the world thanks to upgrades like efficient lighting, insulated windows, and smart controls.

Got Your Score? Here’s what to do next

🟢 If you’re at or below the national median

Congrats! Your building is performing better than most. Want to save another 5, 15, or even 20% on your energy bills? Consider steps like automating bill data entry to eliminate errors and save nearly 40 hours of time every month, monitoring your energy usage in real-time to address issues before they become costly bills, and deep-diving into your portfolio through advanced benchmarking. Our Energy Management 201 series is designed to help organizations go beyond the basics to find even more energy savings.

🔴 If you’re higher than average

Don’t worry, this is exactly what benchmarking is for. Now you know, and you can act. Start with the basics: your utility bills. Centralizing all your bills into one location where finance, accounts payable, and energy teams can work from the same dataset is critical to getting a handle on your utility costs.

EnergyCAP automatically audits your bills and flags issues before you pay them, like unusual demand spikes and costly billing errors–most customers find savings on nearly 5% of their bills every single month. From there, make simple changes to your buildings to save even more. EnergyCAP offers several free resources to help you take action: start with our Energy Management 101 series to learn practical strategies, and join our free Eco Champions community for expert-led training, Q&A opportunities, and conversations with like-minded professionals who are successfully lowering their utility costs.

Why energy benchmarking matters

Even as federal programs shift, the need for visibility hasn’t. Benchmarking is still the single fastest way to identify energy waste, prioritize upgrades, and start saving money. And when energy data is centralized, standardized, and easy to access, it’s easier to make confident decisions that stick.

EnergyCAP gives you that clarity. Our platform captures every bill, meter, and data point in one place—so your team can cut through the noise and focus on what matters: finding savings and hitting goals.