In a ruling issued Dec. 30, 2008, by the U.S. Department of
Energy, states must now certify that their building codes meet the requirements
in ASHRAE/IESNA’s 2004 energy efficiency standard. The DOE finds the standard
saves more energy than an earlier version.
ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004,
Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, has been
established by the DOE as the commercial building reference standard for state
building energy codes under the federal Energy Policy Act. The Act requires all states to certify that
they have state energy codes in place that are at least as stringent as
90.1-2004, or justify why they cannot comply.
“The quantitative analysis of the energy
consumption of buildings built to Standard 90.1-2004, as compared with
buildings built to Standard 90.1-1999, indicates national source energy savings
of approximately 13.9 percent of commercial building energy consumption. Site
energy savings are estimated to be approximately 11.9 percent,” according to
the ruling published in The Federal Register.
“ASHRAE is committed to continually
improving building energy performance, so we are pleased with this recognition
that the 2004 standard saves more energy,” ASHRAE President
Bill
Harrison said. “ASHRAE is currently working on the 2010 version of
Standard 90.1 with a goal of achieving 30 percent energy savings compared to 90.1-2004
as part of our target to achieve market-viable net-zero-energy buildings by
2015.”
The DOE noted that the newer version of
the standard contained 13 positive impacts on energy efficiency. These impacts
included changes made through the public review process in which users of the
standard comment and offer guidance on proposed requirements to the standard.
The positive impacts include:
- Removed explicit allowance for
supply air into non-occupied isolation areas.
- Limitations
of the use of dampers in closed circuit cooling towers in place of water bypass
valves and piping.
- Additions of insulation
requirements for buried ductwork.
- Mapping of
envelope requirements to new climate zones, which led to increased stringency of
envelope requirements.
- Mapping of economizer
requirements to new climate zones, which led to greater geographic expansion of
economizer requirements.
- Addition of requirements
for ventilation fan controls.
- Lowered size range
for part-load fan power limitation.
- Addition of
requirements for heat pump pool heaters.
- Complete
replacement of interior lighting power density allowances.
- Revised exterior lighting power density
allowances.
- Addition of occupancy sensor
requirements for classrooms, meeting and lunch rooms.
- Lower retail sales lighting power allowance.
- New exit sign wattage requirement.
In addition, ASHRAE is working on providing more stringent
energy guidance in a proposed standard for high-performance buildings. Being
developed in partnership with IESNA and the U.S. Green Building Council,
Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings
Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, will provide minimum requirements for
the design of high-performance new commercial buildings and major renovation
projects, addressing energy efficiency, a building’s impact on the atmosphere,
sustainable sites, water use efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor
environmental quality.
Source:
ASHRAE
