Characterization of the U.S. Industrial Commercial Boiler Population

A.8 Economic Census
The Bureau of the Census performs the Economic Census every 5 years with 1997
providing the most recent data. EEA used the 1997 Economic Census (EC97) to project
the size distribution of boilers that are not captured in existing inventories. The EC97
estimates that there are 363,000 manufacturing facilities. Although the EC97 does not
track boilers or boiler fuels, it does provide a breakdown of the number of establishments
by the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code and number of
employees and the summary of this data is shown in Table A-5.
Table A-5 Percentage of Facilities by Number of Employees
Distribution of Facilities by Number of Employees
Industry =2500
Food 24% 14% 15% 18% 10% 10% 4% 3% 2% 0%
Paper 6% 5% 10% 24% 20% 25% 4% 3% 2% 0%
Chemicals 16% 10% 12% 21% 15% 15% 5% 3% 2% 0%
Refining 7% 5% 7% 17% 10% 21% 16% 11% 7% 0%
Metals 11% 5% 6% 11% 7% 18% 20% 10% 6% 6%
Other Manufacturing 24% 13% 14% 18% 11% 11% 5% 2% 1% 0%
Total 22% 13% 14% 19% 12% 12% 5% 2% 1% 0%
A.9 CBECS
Approximately every four years EIA performs the Commercial Buildings Energy
Consumption Survey (CBECS), with the most recent survey completed for 1999. EIA
completed interviews for 5,430 buildings and used the results to estimate fuel
consumption for the 4.66 million commercial building in the U.S. EIA estimates that
boilers serve 581,000 buildings.
Figure A-9 shows the distribution of floor space in commercial buildings by building size
and building age. The largest amount of floor space served by boilers is in buildings
constructed in the 1960s, which is fairly consistent with the vintage analysis in Chapter 4.
Commercial floor space served by boilers decreased in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s,
although boilers remained a common technology for facilities larger than 200,000 square
feet.
A-12 Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc.