Effective Tracking Of Building Energy Use

The United States is responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world's energy consumption. Population growth, and the associated growth in housing, commercial floor space, transportation, goods, and services is expected to cause a 0.7 percent annual increase in energy demand for the foreseeable future. The energy used by the commercial and residential sectors represents approximately 40 percent of the nation's total energy consumption, and the share of these two sectors is expected to increase in the future. The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) and Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) are two major surveys conducted by the Energy Information Administration. The surveys are the most relevant sources of data available to researchers and policy makers on energy consumption in the commercial and residential sectors. Many of the design decisions and operational procedures for the CBECS and RECS were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and resource limitations during much of the time since then have prevented EIA from making significant changes to the data collections. Effective Tracking of Building Energy Use makes recommendations for redesigning the surveys based on a review of evolving data user needs and an assessment of new developments in relevant survey methods.

The United States is responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world's energy consumption. Population growth, and the associated growth in housing, commercial floor space, transportation, goods, and services is expected to cause a 0.7 percent annual increase in energy demand for the foreseeable future. The energy used by the commercial and residential sectors represents approximately 40 percent of the nation's total energy consumption, and the share of these two sectors is expected to increase in the future. The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) and Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) are two major surveys conducted by the Energy Information Administration. The surveys are the most relevant sources of data available to researchers and policy makers on energy consumption in the commercial and residential sectors. Many of the design decisions and operational procedures for the CBECS and RECS were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and resource limitations during much of the time since then have prevented EIA from making significant changes to the data collections. Effective Tracking of Building Energy Use makes recommendations for redesigning the surveys based on a review of evolving data user needs and an assessment of new developments in relevant survey methods.

Urbanization and growing wealth in developing countries portend a large increase of demand for modern energy services in residential, commercial and public-service buildings in the coming decades. Pursuing energy efficiency in buildings is vital to energy security in developing countries and is identified by the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change as having the greatest potential for cost-effective reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030 among all energy-consuming sectors. Building energy efficiency codes (BEECs), along with energy efficiency standards for major appliances and equipment, are broadly recognized as a necessary government intervention to overcome persistent market barriers to capturing the economic potential of energy efficiency gains in the residential, commercial and public-service sectors. Implementation of BEECs help prevent costly energy wastes over the lifecycles of buildings in space heating, air conditioning, lighting, and other energy service requirements. Nonetheless, achieving the full potential of energy savings afforded by more energy-efficient buildings requires holding people who live or work in buildings accountable for the cost of energy services. Compliance enforcement has been the biggest challenge to implementing BEECs. This report summarizes the findings of an extensive literature survey of the experiences of implementing BEECs in developed countries, as well as those from case studies of China, Egypt, India, and Mexico. It also serves as a primer on the basic features and contents of BEECs and the commonly adopted compliance and enforcement approaches. This report highlights the key challenges to improving compliance enforcement in developing countries, including government commitment to energy efficiency, the effectiveness of government oversight of the construction sector, the compliance capacity of building supply chain, and financing constraints. The report notes that the process of transforming a country s building supply chain toward delivering increasingly more energy-efficient buildings takes time and requires persistent government intervention through uniformly enforced and regularly updated BEECs. The report recommends increased international support in strengthening the enforcement infrastructure for BEECs in middle-income developing countries. For low- and lower-middle-income countries, there is an urgent need to assist in improving the effectiveness of government oversight system for building construction, laying the foundation for the system to also cover BEECs.

Congress has an ongoing interest in ensuring that the 500,000 buildings and other structures owned and operated by the Department of Defense (DOD) are operated effectively in terms of cost and resource use. Section 2830 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the congressional defense committees on the energy-efficiency and sustainability standards used by DOD for military construction and major renovations of buildings. DOD's report must include a cost-benefit analysis, return on investment, and long-term payback for the building standards and green building certification systems, including: (A) American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 189.1-2011 for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential. (B) ASHRAE Energy Standard 90.1-2010 for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential. (C) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver, Gold, and Platinum certification for green buildings, as well as the LEED Volume certification. (D) Other American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited standards. DOD's report to the congressional defense committees must also include a copy of DOD policy prescribing a comprehensive strategy for the pursuit of design and building standards across the department that include specific energy-efficiency standards and sustainable design attributes for military construction based on the cost-benefit analysis, return on investment, and demonstrated payback required for the aforementioned building standards and green building certification systems. Energy-Efficiency Standards and Green Building Certification Systems Used by the Department of Defense for Military Construction and Major Renovations summarizes the recommendations for energy efficiency.