By Rona Fried, Ph.D.
Over the past few months, as the commercial construction sector shows signs of rebounding, there have been some major advances in green building policy and measurement. Luckily, they didn't require Congress to pay legislation, or they never would have passed.
Energy Conservation Codes Upgraded
The International Energy Conservation Code was upgraded for 2012 - it now requires homes and buildings to achieve energy savings 30% higher than the 2006 code. Since homes and buildings produce fully half of US greenhouse gases and use over 75% of the electricity generated from power plants, the new code is a very significant energy policy decision. In fact, the changes represent the largest single-step efficiency increase in the history of the national energy code.
About 500 state, county and city building and fire code officials from around the US voted to upgrade the code. The changes - which affect new construction and retrofits for homes, businesses, schools, churches and commercial buildings - were sought by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of State Energy Officials, various governors, American Institute of Architects and the broad-based Energy Efficient Codes Coalition (EECC).
Local building codes across the country are based on these national model standards. The new codes address all aspects of residential and commercial building construction, laying a strong foundation for efficiency gains.
In the residential sector, improvements will:
- Better seal new homes to reduce heating and cooling loss
- Improve the efficiency of windows and skylights
- Increase insulation in ceilings, walls, and foundations
- Reduce wasted energy from leaky heating and cooling ducts
- Improve hot-water distribution systems to reduce wasted energy and water in piping
- Boost lighting efficiency
In addition to those features, commercial building codes include continuous air barriers, daylighting controls, use of economizers in additional climates, and a choice of three paths for designers and developers to increase efficiency: renewable energy systems, more efficient HVAC equipment, or improved lighting systems. It also requires commissioning of new buildings to ensure that actual building energy performance meets the design intent.
"It's notable that the votes that will have the most profound impact on national energy and environmental policy this year weren't held in Washington or a state capital, but by governmental officials assembled by the International Code Council in Charlotte, North Carolina," said EECC Executive Director William Fay.
The people who voted rejected proposals that would have weakened the codes, such as tradeoffs, where a builder could install less efficient insulation and windows in exchange for more efficient HVAC equipment that would have been installed anyway. "Efficiency shouldn't be an either/or proposition," Fay said. "We need to both improve building envelopes and install high-efficiency HVAC systems."
Standard to Measure Building Energy Performance
As more buildings undergo energy efficiency retrofits, buyers, sellers and lenders of these properties need a way to consistently measure energy performance data among them.
A growing number of states (California, Washington) and local governments (D.C., Austin, Seattle, New York City) have passed mandatory green building/energy efficiency requirements that require commercial properties to disclose their energy performance. Other states are considering such rules, including Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Minnesota, Ohio, and Oregon.
Until now, if there's any data at all, it's often unreliable. Results are skewed by factors such as building occupancy levels, weather conditions, operating hours etc.
