Wheatley Education Campus and Cole Recreation Center

How does Wheatley Education Campus and Cole Recreation Center compare with other K-12 school buildings in Washington, DC?

The latest disclosures cover 333 K-12 school buildings in Washington, DC, out of 6,870 buildings citywide. Wheatley Education Campus and Cole Recreation Center's ENERGY STAR score of 19 compares with an average of 44 across the 304 that report a score; it scores higher than 20% of them and lower than 79%. Its site EUI of 72.3 kBtu/ft² is about 13% above the average of 64.1 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 5.5 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 15% above the group average of 4.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 86,374 sq ft, it is about 18% below the average floor area of 105,946 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1913, 36 years earlier than the group's average year built (1949). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 6,548 K-12 school buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 64 and a site EUI of 52.7 kBtu/ft².

How has Wheatley Education Campus and Cole Recreation Center's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 5 Washington, DC disclosures for Wheatley Education Campus and Cole Recreation Center, covering report years 2019–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 14 in 2019 to 19 in 2023 (+5 points); its best year on file was 2022, at 23. Site EUI moved from 81.6 kBtu/ft² (2019) to 72.3 kBtu/ft² (2023), a 11% decrease. Reported emissions went from 614 tCO₂e to 477 tCO₂e over the same span (down 22%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 19 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 19 means the building performs better than about 19% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 19 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 56 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. Wheatley Education Campus and Cole Recreation Center's 72.3 kBtu/ft² across 86,374 sq ft works out to about 6.2 billion Btu (1,830 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 179.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,502,910 kWh of electricity, 7,793 therms of natural gas and 1,884 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires Wheatley Education Campus and Cole Recreation Center to report its energy use?

Wheatley Education Campus and Cole Recreation Center 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 2023 disclosure (source record dc:PM12004441:2023). 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.