“Wait, how did our power bill jump again?” 

Most facility teams have asked that question with pure disbelief, knowing that everything else — including operating hours, production hours, staffing, and set-points — remained unchanged. The uncomfortable truth is that you’re not alone; roughly 30% of the energy flowing into the average U.S. commercial building is wasted.  

The good news? These losses leave fingerprints. If you spot them early, you can turn them into fast savings instead of steady losses. 

Five Telltale Signs Your Building Is Bleeding Energy 

1. Utility Bills Keep Rising with No Clear Cause

The national average commercial electricity price climbed from 11.22 ¢/kWh in 2021 to 12.85 ¢/kWh in 2024—a 15% increase in just three years—according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. If your bills are rising even faster, despite steady staffing and operational hours, it's likely due to inefficiencies—not just inflation.

Spot it sooner 

• Compare current bills to the same month last year, normalized for weather. 

• Benchmark against ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager or your local BOMA peer group. 

• Flag any year-over-year monthly spikes.  

2. Endless Hot-and-Cold Complaints

When your building feels like it’s always too hot or too cold and missing the sweet spot, your HVAC is likely cycling on and off in short bursts, overshooting the setpoint, then scrambling to correct itself. That constant “on-off-on” pattern draws the most power at each start-up, wastes energy, and still fails to hold a steady indoor temperature. Studies of rooftop units show that short cycling alone can reduce a system’s efficiency around 10%, even when nothing is mechanically “broken.” 

Why it matters 

• Short cycling wears out equipment prematurely. 

• Discomfort drives churn in leased space. 

• Temperature cycling masks the real culprit: bad setpoints and sensor drift. 

3. Lights and Fans That Never Sleep

Late-night walk-throughs often reveal lobby lighting, vending machines, and exhaust fans humming away for an audience of none. DOE guidance shows that smarter scheduling and controls can reduce HVAC energy by up to 30%. The same logic applies to lighting and plug loads. Just addressing run-time scheduling can result in quick, low-cost savings. 

Quick Wins: 

• Occupancy sensors in low-traffic zones 

• Night setback strategies for air handling units 

• Prop Tech solutions to control larger energy-consuming systems 

4. Critical Equipment Is Past Its Prime

Rooftop units older than 15 years or chillers past 20 rarely meet today’s efficiency codes. The DOE notes that newer equipment can cut energy consumption by 30–50% versus legacy models. Keep limping along and you’ll pay higher utility and repair bills until an emergency replacement blows the capital budget. 

Rule of thumb:

Factor energy performance into capital planning, not just replacement cost. A commercial energy audit grades each asset’s actual cost so you can swap the worst offenders first. 

5. You’re Not Actively Monitoring or Benchmarking

“What gets measured gets managed” isn’t a cliché. Knowing how much energy you use, where it is used, and how it changes over time is critical to understanding your building’s energy profile. Then, using that data to benchmark your building’s energy use to its peers provides a fast way to see if there are still easy energy savings on the table. 

Why good data pays off: 

• Buildings that benchmark their consumption year-over-year trim about 2.4% off energy use. 

• Most utility rebates, performance contracts, and sustainability-linked loans require a documented baseline. 

• Stakeholders reading ESG reports expect detailed Scope 1 and Scope 2 figures, which only come from accurate utility tracking. 

In short, you can’t manage or monetize it if you can't measure it.  

Counting the Cost: Dollars, Carbon, and Competitive Edge 

Picture a 100,000-square-foot office that performs right at the national median of roughly 53 kBtu/ft² of electricity each year, about 15 kWh per square foot. That works out to approximately 1.55 million kWh a year. At today’s national commercial rate of about 13 ¢/kWh, annual electricity costs near $200,000. Because the DOE finds that around 30% of commercial building energy is wasted, roughly $60,000 is spent on wasted energy. 

Energy waste doesn’t just drain cash; it drags down environmental performance. The EPA’s most recent eGRID update pegs the national grid emissions at about 823 lbs CO₂ per MWh, or 0.374 kg per kWh. The 465,000 kWh our sample building wastes translate into around 174 metric tons of avoidable carbon. This requires over 17,000 trees to absorb these emissions. 

And the hidden costs keep stacking up. Buildings without verifiable savings forfeit utility rebates and tax incentives designed to offset efficiency projects; shaky comfort drives tenants to shorter leases and higher churn; and investors applying ESG screens discount properties that lag on Scope 1 and Scope 2 performance. In other words, every kilowatt you can’t account for erodes asset value while increasing your utility bill. 

And time is running out to take full advantage of one of the most valuable incentives. Federal tax incentives like Section 179D—now worth up to $5 per square foot—can significantly offset the cost of efficiency upgrades, but only for projects that begin construction before June 30, 2026. This means owners and developers need to act now to secure those savings before the opportunity phases out.

So, What Do You Do? 

Luckily, improving your energy efficiency is often easier than you think. There’s typically low-hanging fruit: efficient and cost-effective upgrades that are easy to implement. However, this requires knowing where these losses occur, which is why determining a building’s energy baseline is the first step.  

An energy audit is one of the most effective ways to do this. Audits cover a wide range of sources, from pulling existing data from energy bills and utility specifications to site visits to understand real building conditions. With this data, audits estimate energy use, efficiency, and where losses are occurring. 

With this information, you can implement effective energy upgrades. This role is excellent for seasoned consultants, translating findings into projects with clear goals and returns. 

See the Numbers for Yourself 

If two or more of those red flags felt painfully familiar, it’s time to trade guesswork for data. 

• Need a complete roadmap? Emerald’s Energy Audit Service delivers a prioritized action plan to cut energy use, costs, and carbon, backed by real numbers.  

• Not quite ready? Try our Free Quick Utility Checkup for a high-level snapshot of your building’s performance. 

Either path begins with data and ends with lower bills, happier occupants, and a smaller carbon footprint. Emerald Built Environments, a Crete United Company, has delivered precisely that for clients nationwide. Let’s put your building on the list.