The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a ruling establishing ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, as the commercial-building reference standard for state building energy codes.
In an announcement in the Sept. 26, 2014, edition of Federal Register, the DOE attributes greater energy savings to improvements in Standard 90.1-2013 in several areas, including lighting, fans, commercial refrigeration, and boilers.
The DOE noted the 2013 version of the standard contains 52 positive impacts on energy efficiency, including:
- Control requirements for lighting alternations.
- New requirements for individual fans.
- Reduction of energy usage for large boilers.
- Reduction of fan energy usage.
- New efficiency requirements for commercial refrigeration.
- More controls in more spaces and reduction of time to reduction or shutoff of those controls.
- Reduction of lighting-power density in most building types.