Reference

Guide

How to use the Energy Benchmarking Dashboard, what each tile and chart shows and where the source data comes from. Background on how the benchmarks are built lives on Resources and definitions for individual terms live in the Glossary.

Getting started

1Open a Benchmark from the Building Types sidebar on the left. Categories collapse and expand to reveal the specific Benchmarks underneath.
2The dashboard fills with four KPI tiles, two charts and a metadata strip describing the source data.
3Type a reading into the Your reading input above the distribution chart to drop a dashed marker for your own building. The URL updates as you go, so the view is always shareable.

Selecting a Benchmark

The sidebar groups every Benchmark by building category. Click a category to expand it; click a Benchmark inside to load it. The current selection stays highlighted as you scroll.

CateringDomesticEducation (Higher Education)Education (Schools)EntertainmentHospitalsHotelsIndustrial buildingsLocal authority buldingsMinistry of Defence (MoD) buildingsOfficesPrimary health carePublic buildingsRetailSports and recreation

Example: opening Offices reveals sub-types such as Naturally Ventilated, Open Plan / Air Conditioned and Standard. Each sub-type is its own Benchmark with its own source.

Understanding the KPI tiles

The strip across the top of the dashboard surfaces the four headline figures for the selected Benchmark.

Tile	Description
Electricity (25^th percentile)	Lower than typical electricity use (lower quartile) in the dataset. 75% of buildings in the sample use more electricity, 25% use less. Rendered with a hatched green fill so it reads visually distinct from the median.
Electricity (50^th percentile)	The typical electricity use (median) in the dataset. 50% of buildings use more, 50% use less. Rendered with a solid green fill.
Fossil fuels (25^th percentile)	Lower than typical fossil-fuel use (lower quartile). 75% of buildings use more fossil fuel, 25% use less. Rendered with a hatched orange fill.
Fossil fuels (50^th percentile)	The typical fossil-fuel use (median). 50% of buildings use more, 50% use less. Rendered with a solid orange fill.

Units: most values are displayed in kWh/m²·yr (kilowatt-hours per square metre per year). Some Benchmarks use an alternative denominator where it gives a more meaningful comparison; for example, Prison Benchmarks are presented as kWh/prisoner·yr because energy use correlates more strongly with the prisoner population than with floor area. The metadata strip at the foot of the dashboard always names the denominator in use.

Heads up: some building types (typically electrically heated ones) only publish electricity figures. The two fossil-fuel tiles render as dashed placeholders and the bar chart hides the fossil bars on its own.

Understanding the charts

Two charts sit side by side below the KPI tiles. They use the same visual grammar: green for electricity, orange for fossil fuels, a hatched fill for the 25^th percentile and a solid fill for the 50^th.

Benchmarks comparison (left chart)

A bar chart of the headline percentiles for the selected Benchmark, with two toggle groups above it for trimming the view.

X-axis: Fuel type

Y-axis: Energy use intensity (kWh/m²·yr, or an alternative unit depending on the Benchmark)

Fuel toggle group

BothElectricityFossil fuels

Trims the chart to a single fuel. Both is the default and shows two pairs of bars side by side. The Fossil fuels option is hidden for electricity-only Benchmarks.

Percentile toggle group

Both25^th50^th

Trims the chart to a single percentile. The fill pattern stays the same: hatched for the 25^th, solid for the 50^th.

Fill conventions

Electricity, 50^th (solid)

Electricity, 25^th (hatched)

Fossil fuels, 50^th (solid)

Fossil fuels, 25^th (hatched)

EUI distribution (right chart)

A cumulative distribution of energy use across the published sample. The shape of the curve tells you how spread out the sample is.

X-axis: Energy use intensity (kWh/m²·yr, or an alternative unit depending on the Benchmark)

Y-axis: Cumulative percentage of buildings

Key percentiles

10^th percentile, top 10% of performers.
25^th percentile, top 25%.
50^th percentile (median), the middle of the distribution.
75^th percentile, bottom 25%.
90^th percentile, bottom 10%.

Fuel toggle group

When a Benchmark publishes both fuels, a small toggle above the chart switches between Electricity and Fossil fuels. Single-fuel Benchmarks render whichever fuel they publish and hide the toggle.

Your reading: type a number into the Your readinginput above the chart to drop a dashed vertical marker on the distribution. The URL updates after a short pause so the comparison is shareable. The marker pins to the edge of the chart and gains an “off-chart” pill if the reading lies outside the published distribution.

Limited distribution: some sources only publish the 25^th and 50^thpercentile rather than the full p10 / p75 / p90 spread. Those Benchmarks fall back to a simpler bracket chart with three zones (good practice, typical and higher than typical) instead of the cumulative curve. The metadata strip flags these as “Limited distribution”.

Source and metadata strip

The strip along the foot of the dashboard surfaces the provenance of the Benchmark you're looking at. The source link opens the original publication wherever a public URL is available.

Field	Description
Source	The publication the Benchmark is drawn from (e.g. CIBSE Guide F, DEC). Clickable where a public URL is available.
Sample size	Number of buildings in the published sample.
Years covered	The reporting period the source data spans.
Denominator	What the energy figure is normalised by, normally floor area (kWh/m²·yr). Some Benchmarks use a more meaningful denominator; see the Units note above.
Weather corrected	Whether fossil-fuel figures have been normalised to a long-run UK average heating degree-day total. Electricity is never weather-corrected.