National Commercial Construction Characteristics and Compliance With Building Energy Codes: 1999-2007
As States adopt the latest energy standards which continue to be developed with more stringent requirements, a better understanding of actual compliance with standards and construction practice can be important. Claims are made that energy-related standards impose excessive burdens on building owners and the construction industry. Other claims indicate that many energy-codes requirements are common practice and will have little impact on the building community. Analysis of code effects as well as energy efficiency projects and programs are also more important than ever. These energy realities create a need for better information on the current state of new commercial construction. Regional and national studies exist that provide primarily survey data for only selections of buildings in specific locations. This paper presents an assessment of how current new commercial construction complies with applicable energy codes on a national basis for a range of code levels represented by buildings designed in the 1999 – 2007 timeframe. This analysis makes use of a recently updated commercial buildings database with more than 130 energy-related building characteristics from over 340 new commercial buildings across the United States. Energy code compliance of the buildings in this sample is assessed using the COMcheck™ energy standard compliance software tool to determine how closely new construction across the nation is to meeting current and recently adopted energy codes such as ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1. The results present an interesting look at where code requirements stand with respect to current construction and provide insights into the challenges faced by the building community to meet these standards.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1021300
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-59829; BT0201000; TRN: US201116%%1177
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Scaling Up: Building Tomorrow's Solutions: Proceedings from the 14th ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 17-22, Pacific Grove, California, 3:3-291 - 3-306
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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