Breckinridge House (University of Chicago)
🏆

1442 E. 59th Street, Chicago IL, 60637 Find on Google Maps

Chicago Building ID: 256502

Building Info

Square Footage: 50,698 sqft
Lower than 98% of all buildings
1/3 median
139,707 sqft
1/5 median Residence Hall/Dormitory
237,121 sqft
Built: 1916
Primary Property Type: Residence Hall/Dormitory
Community Area: Hyde Park
Chicago Energy Rating: 4.0 / 4
Energy Star Score: 96 / 100
Owner

Emissions & Energy Information for 2022

Greenhouse Gas Intensity: 4 kg CO₂e / sqft
#1 Lowest of Residence Hall/Dormitories 🏆
Lower than 90% of all buildings
0.6x median
6.4 kg CO₂e / sqft
0.6x median Residence Hall/Dormitory
6.8 kg CO₂e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 201.4 tons CO₂e
#1 Lowest of Residence Hall/Dormitories 🏆
Lower than 98% of all buildings
1/4 median
885.8 tons CO₂e
1/10 median Residence Hall/Dormitory
2,005.1 tons CO₂e

Years Reported 5/5 A

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022

Note: Buildings are marked as reporting when we have greenhouse gas intensity values for them, but some buildings are missing GHG intensity values but have reported the underlying energy use data, but we're unsure why this is the case.

Energy Breakdown

Natural Gas Use: 110 kBtu
#2 Lowest of Residence Hall/Dormitories 🏆
Lower than 94% of all buildings
1/52895 median
5,818,399.6 kBtu
1/9255 median Residence Hall/Dormitory
1,018,042 kBtu
Electricity Use: 215,596 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $9,000 for 2022**
#12 Lowest in Chicago* 🏆
#1 Lowest of Residence Hall/Dormitories 🏆
1/18 median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
1/43 median Residence Hall/Dormitory
9,286,974.7 kBtu
District Steam Use: 2,605,988.8 kBtu
Most buildings don't use district steam, so we don't currently have comparison data.

Energy Mix

Total Energy Use: 2,821,695 kBTU

View Extra Technical Info

Source Energy Usage Intensity: 73.7 kBtu / sqft
#1 Lowest of Residence Hall/Dormitories 🏆
Lower than 94% of all buildings
0.6x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
0.5x median Residence Hall/Dormitory
139.8 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity: 55.7 kBtu / sqft
#1 Lowest of Residence Hall/Dormitories 🏆
Lower than 80% of all buildings
0.7x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
0.7x median Residence Hall/Dormitory
84.6 kBtu / sqft

Full Historical Data Table

Year	Floor Area sqft	Chicago Energy Rating	Energy Star Score	GHG Intensity kg CO₂e / sqft	GHG Emissions metric tons CO₂e	Source EUI kBTU / sqft	Electricity Use kBTU	Natural Gas Use kBTU	District Steam Use kBTU
2018	50,698	-	95	4.4	225.6	79.3	305,136	-	2,632,519
2019	50,698	4.0	97	3.7	188.9	67.3	317,875	-	2,097,857
2020	50,698	4.0	95	4.1	209.2	74.6	270,056	210	2,516,092
2021	50,698	4.0	96	3.8	194.7	70.5	233,191	319	2,429,790
2022	50,698	4.0	96	4.0	201.4	73.7	215,596	110	2,605,988

* Note on Rankings: Rankings and medians are among included buildings, which are those who reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance for the year 2022, which only applies to buildings over 50,000 square feet.

** Note on Bill Estimates: Estimates for gas and electric bills are based on average electric and gas retail prices for Chicago in 2021 and are rounded. We expect large buildings would negotiate lower rates with utilities, but these estimates serve as an upper bound of cost and help understand the volume of energy a building is used by comparing it to your own energy bills! See our Chicago Gas & Electric Costs Source for the original statistics.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data

What Should We Do About This?

Practically every building has room to improve with energy efficiency upgrades like insulation, switching to ENERGY STAR rated appliances, and more, but for any buildings with large natural gas use, we recommend one thing: electrify!

In other words, buildings should look to move all on-site uses of fossil fuels (including space heating, water heating, and cooking) to electrically powered systems like industrial grade heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and induction stoves. With Illinois' current electric supply, just using the same amount of energy from electricity, rather than natural gas (aka methane) will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is because Illinois' grid in 2020 was already 67% carbon-free (see Illinois - Power | DecarbMyState ). This has already been done across the country with a variety of buildings, large and small, like the Hotel Marcel .

You can help make this a reality by talking to building owners and letting them know that a building's emissions are important to you, and that you want to see their building become fully electric and stop emitting greenhouse gases. Particularly for buildings you have a financial stake in (like your university, work, condo building, or apartment building) your voice in concert with your fellow building users can have a huge impact.

Additional Resources

See some additional resources on improving energy efficiency and understanding this data:

Breckinridge House (University of Chicago) 🏆