Electricity accounts for half of all energy use, natural gas for just under half of all use in food service buildings. Food service buildings used 502 trillion Btu of primary electricity, which brings the total energy consumption for food service buildings up to 668 trillion Btu, or 6 percent of total primary consumption for all commercial buildings.
Energy use is distributed among a number of different uses in food service buildings.
Cooking accounts for the most use, followed by lighting, refrigeration, and space heating. Food service buildings use an average of 1.2 billion Btu per building and have an energy intensity of 245.5 thousand Btu per square foot. The energy expenditures in food service buildings account for 7 percent of energy expenditures in commercial buildings.