Bethesda Health

How does Bethesda Health compare with other residential care facility buildings in Montgomery County?

The latest disclosures cover 16 residential care facility buildings in Montgomery County, out of 1,766 buildings citywide. Its site EUI of 117.6 kBtu/ft² is about 16% above the average of 101.3 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 83,012 sq ft, it is about 39% above the average floor area of 59,856 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1968, 16 years earlier than the group's average year built (1984). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 321 residential care facility buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 41 and a site EUI of 94.2 kBtu/ft².

What does a site EUI of 117.6 kBtu/ft² mean?

Site energy-use intensity (EUI) is the energy a building uses on site in a year divided by its floor area, in thousand Btu per square foot — lower is more efficient. Bethesda Health's 117.6 kBtu/ft² across 83,012 sq ft works out to about 9.8 billion Btu (2,861 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 252.0 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,785,967 kWh of electricity and 36,694 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Bethesda Health to report its energy use?

Bethesda Health reports under the Benchmarking Law (Bill 2-14) / BEPS (Bill 16-21), the legal basis of Montgomery County's Commercial Building Energy Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record montgomery_county:35618314:2024). Montgomery County's BEPS (Bill 16-21; regulations approved in 2025) sets declining site-EUI standards for buildings of 25,000+ sq ft, with interim and then final standards later this decade and into the 2030s depending on building type.