Retirement Housing Foundation: Energy performance

Better Buildings Challenge Partners commit to decrease portfolio-wide source energy use intensity (EUI) and to increase the percent improvement compared to a set baseline. Since 2014, Retirement Housing Foundation has improved energy performance by an average of 1.7% each year.  This is equivalent to a cumulative improvement of 10%, accounting for the varying lengths of time properties were included in Retirement Housing Foundation’s portfolio. Retirement Housing Foundation is continuing in their efforts to retrofit windows, replace HVAC units and PTACs, and focus on water conservation measures. They are partnering with energy companies like SoCalGas to replace boilers and hot water heaters to gain greater energy efficiencies.

Multifamily property owners often face challenges in gathering whole building data for properties with large numbers of individual tenant-paid utility accounts. Through the Better Buildings Challenge, partners can demonstrate progress towards their savings goal by reporting two types of data: (1) whole-building energy use, including tenant-paid utilities, for at least 30 percent of their portfolio; and (2) owner-paid receipts (common areas only) for the remaining share of their portfolio. Retirement Housing Foundation's portfolio consists of 153 properties and more than 11 million square feet and approximately 12,500 housing units, with whole-building data (both tenant-paid and owner-paid receipts) available for 62% of their portfolio.

This graph breaks out the portfolio's energy performance for properties with whole building energy use vs those with owner-paid receipts.  Retirement Housing Foundation has achieved 1.6% savings in properties with whole-building data and 2.1% in properties with owner-paid receipts. 

Looking at the percent improvement in energy performance across all facilities can provide insight into how an organization is saving energy.  Retirement Housing Foundation has achieved energy performance improvement of greater than 15% at more than 53 of its properties. There are 38 properties that have experienced an increase in Source EUI.  These properties have been targeted for future energy efficiency improvements.

Property-level energy performance metrics, including EUI and percent improvement to date, are critical to track progress over time and identify opportunities for additional energy savings. Retirement Housing Foundation's portfolio consists of properties with  a wide range of baseline EUI values, most of which are from 20 to 140 kBtu/sq. ft. The majority of properties have shown energy improvement since 2014. The properties located near or below the 0% axis may present good opportunities for further savings.