Building Questionnaire (2007) EIA-871A

HOW TO USE THIS QUESTIONNAIRE
The 2007 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) was conducted using a computerassisted
personal interview programmed using a software called Blaise. A professional interviewer administered
the questionnaire to the building respondent using a laptop computer. The purpose of this paper representation
of the questionnaire is to document the question text, fills, and skip patterns within the 2007 CBECS
questionnaire.
PLEASE NOTE: All the question fills and skip patterns were handled automatically by the software and were
transparent to the interviewer, so this document appears much more complex that the actual CBECS
instrument.
Each question is formatted as follows:
A1 Question name SASVAR9
ASK
FILL
Question text
RANGE
NEXT
The black box (A1 here) contains a question number, followed by the Question name and the SAS variable (if
applicable) in the same row. If the SAS variable area says “see below,” the variables are found within the
Question text box.
The ASK line describes what needs to be true for a question to be asked for a particular building.
There are two variables that are preloaded into each case and used for routing in some questions:
Freestanding – a building that is not attached on any sides
Enclosed mall – the building is an enclosed mall building
The FILL line describes any question fills and the conditions under which each appears. If the fill appears as
something such as “A1 [Square footage]” this means that the figure provided in question A1 will be appear as
question fill text.
The Question text box shows the question text, and any other elements for each question, such as Show Card
indicators or instructions, and the answer choices for each question.
The RANGE line is only applicable to numeric questions. It shows the range of answers that will be accepted by
Blaise.
The NEXT line details the routing for the next question. Follow these instructions in order
. Once a true statement
is reached, go to the question indicated by the arrow ().
2007 CBECS Building Questionnaire (EIA-871A)
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