Choosing house size square foot value

I understand the House size square footage value is just for comparison, but I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for what might be the most “helpful” value for said comparison. Basically, my house is 1250 sq ft, right in the middle between the 1000 and 1500 sq ft options. To anyone who has found the comparison helpful for their energy usage, do you think it would be better to round up or down? Or treat the options as ranges (“0-500”, “501-1000”, “1001-1500”, etc)? Possibly including or excluding a garage?

I had a similar situation with my apartment and rounded down - it really should not impact the overall compare accuracy either way, since the comparisons are based on ranges as well.

Square footage is a tough metric to use as a single value. While there are some types of usage that vary proportionally to the square footage, the square footage of a house does not take into account ceiling height, number of stories, etc. that all have an impact on the size of the house’s envelope. That matters because, for most of us, HVAC is the #1 energy consumer. All else being equal, a 2000 sqft ranch is going to lose more heat in the winter than a 2000 sqft two-story house (because the “roof” of the bottom story is the “floor/slab” of the upper story). Similarly, a house with a basement is going to have different heating/cooling characteristics than one built entirely above-grade, even though the total square footage may be the same.

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