New Energy Standards Delay
Monday, February 3, 2014
by: BOMA's Energy & Sustainability Committee

Section: Committee Announcements




NEW ENERGY STANDARDS DELAY

In December, the Energy Commission has taken action to delay Title 24 Energy Standards by six months. The new effective date for the 2013 Building Energy Efficiency Standards are July 1, 2014.  The Building Standards Commission also had to take action as some parts of the building code mirror the delayed standards.  However, please note, only those parts of CalGREEN that directly rely on the delayed energy standards are impacted.
 
The Energy Commission released the following statement about the delay:
At its December 11, 2013 Business Meeting, the California Energy Commission is considering revising the effective date for the 2013 Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Title 24, Part 1, Chapter 10 and Part 6, and affected provisions in Part 11 [Cal. Green Building Standards Code]) from January 1, 2014 to July 1, 2014.
 
The California Energy Commission's 2013 Public Domain Compliance Software must be used to complete the performance compliance approach of the 2013 Building Energy Efficiency Standards. While the public domain software for the 2013 Standards meets the minimum requirements for new construction, it does not yet provide the full feature set needed for building alteration projects seeking building permits in early 2014. The new timeline also provides sufficient time for software training.
 
The public domain compliance software for residential buildings has been available since July 2013. Developers have been using the software to not only design buildings to comply but also exceed the new Standards. The public domain compliance software for nonresidential buildings was released in September 2013.
 
The California Energy Commission adopted the 2013 Standards on May 31, 2012, and the California Building Standards Commission approved them on January 23, 2013.
 
This change provides the industry more time to prepare for the new Standards. The Energy Commission will use the additional time to provide more information on the Standards and work with the California utilities, building industry and California building officials to provide training on the new Standards.
If approved by the CEC at their December 11th Business Meeting, the six-month delay would still need to be ratified by the Building Standards Commission.  However, the BSC is already taking steps to conduct an emergency meeting on December 18th in anticipation of receiving this CEC request.
 
Click here for more information about 2013 Building Energy Efficiency Standards. 
 
 
AB 1103 MANDATORY BENCHMARKING SESSIONS
Please note the above mentioned delay does NOT impact the effective date for the AB 1103 Benchmarking law.  If you are not yet ready for the mandatory benchmarking regulations which kick-in on January 1, 2014, refer to directly to the CEC resource page.
Throughout the end of last year we partnered with the Energy Commission to help owners/managers better understand the policy issues related to the implementation of the AB 1103 Mandatory Benchmarking and Disclosure Law.
 
The effective date of the regulations is January 1, 2014, for all nonresidential buildings more than 10,000 square feet.