The Louis at 14th (Whole-Building)

How does The Louis at 14th (Whole-Building) compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Washington, DC?

The latest disclosures cover 1,799 multifamily housing buildings in Washington, DC, out of 6,870 buildings citywide. The Louis at 14th (Whole-Building)'s ENERGY STAR score of 34 compares with an average of 72 across the 1,618 that report a score; it scores higher than 9% of them and lower than 90%. Its site EUI of 93.6 kBtu/ft² is about 83% above the average of 51.1 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 9.7 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 155% above the group average of 3.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 178,277 sq ft, it is about 31% above the average floor area of 136,346 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2013, 48 years later than the group's average year built (1965). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 59,945 multifamily housing buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 70 and a site EUI of 59.0 kBtu/ft².

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 34 mean?

ENERGY STAR scores run from 1 to 100 and are computed by the EPA's Portfolio Manager as a percentile against similar buildings nationwide, adjusted for climate, size and use: a score of 34 means the building performs better than about 34% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 34 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 41 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In Washington, DC, 47% of scored buildings are at 75 or above.

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. The Louis at 14th (Whole-Building)'s 93.6 kBtu/ft² across 178,277 sq ft works out to about 16.7 billion Btu (4,890 MWh-equivalent) in 2017. Its source EUI of 268.9 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 4,265,033 kWh of electricity, 21,414 therms of natural gas and 5,375 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires The Louis at 14th (Whole-Building) to report its energy use?

The Louis at 14th (Whole-Building) reports under the Clean and Affordable Energy Act / BEPS, the legal basis of Washington, DC's Building Energy Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2017 disclosure (source record dc:PM4842518:2017). DC's Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) require buildings below the performance standard to improve over compliance cycles (the first ends December 31, 2026; later cycles run five years), with penalties for buildings that fail to meet their pathway.