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code compliance

Energy Code Compliance; Any Relation to Performance?

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 4 Comments
Last week, I received a late Christmas package in the form of an opportunity to throw a pitch for code compliance that would actually move the needle.  This will be at the AESP National Conference in Orlando.  I owe a substantial thank you to ACEEE for choosing papers at last year’s Summer Study for Buildings and this recently published research report, Energy Codes for Ultra-Low-Energy Buildings: A Critical Pathway to Zero Net Energy Buildings. I discussed the Summer Study papers in a post back in August.  There were seven(!) papers presented on the subject of code compliance.  The lack of…
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Energy Code (non) Compliance; Could it be… SATAN?

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
I spent last week at ACEEE’s Summer Study for Buildings, and one topic area I maximumly followed was energy codes and code compliance.  In past years, I would rank codes and standards second to the bottom, just above lighting for my priorities.  The reason for my sudden interest is the vaporizing gravy train of widgets, especially lighting and the need for other savings mechanisms.  Why not code compliance?States are updating energy codes willy nilly to the next rounds of ASHRAE 90.1 / International Energy Conservation Code.  As the Church Lady used to say, “Isn’t that special?”  The problem is the…
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Outcomes Rather than Energy Codes – One Piece at a Time

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
A couple weeks ago in Building Energy Codes - A Blutonian D-, I explained how many/all states are sailing forth with increasingly stringent energy codes, and based on anecdotal and personal experience, I have no doubt that with a million dollars we could demonstrate the results are abysmal.  Utilities and program administrators do not want to be energy code enforcers, but why not make code “enforcement” part of a meaningful portfolio? I like to use allegories and metaphors to explain these abstract concepts.  Think of code compliance as a recipe (as in cooking) compliance.  Know any bad cooks?  Cooking delicious meals…
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