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energy performance

Commercial Code Compliance and New Construction Program Failures

By Energy Rant 3 Comments
Earlier this year, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey of 2012. The prior release was 2003. The data do not paint a pretty picture for energy code effectiveness. Other data we are accumulating indicate new construction programs are failing to deliver. Regress At first glance, it seems substantial progress may have been made between 2003 and 2012. The first chart is from the EIA website. As EIA states, “the only statistically significant changes since 2003 are for office buildings, education buildings, and commercial buildings overall.” That is weak, especially considering that the data cover all…
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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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