The ENERGY STAR Score for Worship Facilities applies to churches, temples, mosques, synagogues, meetinghouses, or any other buildings that primarily function as a place of religious worship. The objective of the ENERGY STAR score is to provide a fair assessment of the energy performance of a property relative to its peers, taking into account the climate, weather, and business activities at the property. To identify the aspects of building activity that are significant drivers of energy use and then normalize for those factors, a statistical analysis of the peer building population is performed. The result of this analysis is an equation that will predict the energy use of a property, based on its experienced business activities. The energy use prediction for a building is compared to its actual energy use to yield a 1 to 100 percentile ranking of performance, relative to the national population.
- Property Types. The ENERGY STAR score for worship facilities applies to churches, temples, mosques, synagogues, meetinghouses, or any other buildings that primarily function as a place of religious worship. The score applies to individual buildings only and is not available for campuses.
- Reference Data. The analysis for worship facilities is based on data from the Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration’s 2012 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS).
- Adjustments for Weather and Business Activity. The analysis includes adjustments for:
- Number of Seats
- Weekly Operating Hours
- Square Footage Used for Food Preparation
- Weather and Climate (using Heating and Cooling Degree Days, retrieved based on Zip code)
- Percent of the Building that is Heated and Cooled
- Release Date. The ENERGY STAR score for worship facilities is updated periodically as more recent data becomes available.
- Most Recent Update: August 2018
- Original Release: August 2009
This document presents details on the development of the 1-100 ENERGY STAR score for worship facilities. More information on the overall approach to develop ENERGY STAR scores is covered in our Technical Reference for the ENERGY STAR Score, available at www.energystar.gov/ENERGYSTARScore. The subsequent sections of this document offer specific details on the development of the ENERGY STAR score for worship facilities.
Download more information about the ENERGY STAR score for worship facilities here. (PDF, 1.3 MB)