# Presentation: 097226

## Commercial & Industrial Building Energy Code Baseline Study 

- National Codes Conference
- NH Governor’s Office of Energy & Community Services - Kwasi Asante and
- GDS Associates - Scott Albert
- 07/12/00

**Notes:**
Kwasi Slide

## Background Issues

- Feedback on Residential Energy Codes Workshop
- Limitations on Compliance Process
- Lack of adequate knowledge of the issues to address on C&I codes
- Decision to Investigate, Diagnose, and Administer Solutions

**Notes:**
Kwasi Slide

## Preliminary Evaluations

- Feedback from Building Officials
- Feedback from Architects invited to a Focus Group Discussion
- Low Incidence of Permit Applications at the PUC

**Notes:**
Kwasi Slide

## Strategies to Accomplish Goals & Objectives

- Goals & Objectives Established
- Requirements to Achieving G & O
- Available Funds
- Solicit Contributions and Participation from other Stakeholders
- How to Accomplish as much with limited funds

**Notes:**
Kwasi Slide

## Survey of Commercial New Construction Activities in NH 

- GDS Associates and ENTECH Engineering
- July 12, 2000

**Notes:**
Introduction:
As Kwasi said, my name is Scott Albert. I work for GDS Associates, a 70 person consulting firm with offices in Marietta GA, Austin TX, and Bedford NH.
I was the project manager for this Commercial New Construction Practices and Codes research project and teamed with Chris Warfel, from Entech Engineering who provided important technical support.

## Overview

- The GDS/Entech Team
- Summary of Findings
- Methodology
- Data Collection Results
- Recommendations and Next Steps
- Conclusions

**Notes:**
Kwasi covered the issues and activities that led up to defining the needs and expectations for this project.

I’m going to highlight some key findings, discuss various research tasks and the methodologies that we used to collect critical data.

I’ll summarize results from our data collection activities, and leave you with thoughts on both New Hampshire-specific recommendations and some broader conclusions regarding potential usefulness in your own jurisdictions.

## The GDS/Entech Team

- GDS Associates - Prime Contractor
- Entech Engineering - Subcontractor
- Significant Field and Policy Experience

**Notes:**
As I just mentioned, GDS was the prime contractor for this project and we teamed with Entech Engineering to provide technical assistance.
Chris Warfel and I were the Principal Investigators
I manage GDS's  NE regional office, located in Bedford, NH.
- In addition to energy codes work, GDS is currently working with many utilities, municipals and cooperatives in the northeast region, and across the country, performing detailed  program evaluations and helping to develop energy efficiency policy, market transformation program designs, and program implementation plans.  
Chris Warfel:
- Chris is the president of Entech Engineering
- He has worked directly on energy efficient  new construction & renovation projects for commercial & industrial customers from New Hampshire to Texas
- He is  quite familiar with state commercial  energy codes and was a valuable contributor to this project effort.
To put things in perspective:
- State and federal energy codes set the bar that new construction projects must meet. We were commissioned to look at the bar and compare it against current practices to assess whether the code might be ripe for updating.

## Summary of Findings: Code Utilization and Compliance

- Building Code Officials rely almost solely on architect/design engineer certifications
- Design Professionals are not testing for compliance when developing plans/specs
- Additional training is needed targeted to designers, contractors & code officials

**Notes:**
NH’s current commercial code is based on ASHRAE’s 1989 standard 90.1. Our research found some interesting relationships: READ BULLETS
-  4 out of 9 building officials indicated they do not check for compliance with the energy code & none of them ever rejected a building for failing to meet current code
- Only 1 building official described their knowledge of NH's commercial energy code as "very good". Most described training as "little to none"
- Generally it was indicated that NH's existing code is hard to follow, calculations are complicated, time consuming & costly, and that it's difficult to assess compliance
- There was a clear desire identified for 1) methodology/computer program to integrate code from start to finish with simple checks & flexibility early in the design, and 2) not letting the code lag behind technology quite so much

## Summary of Findings:Measure Specific

- Technology has surpassed current NH code requirements in many areas
- Nearly half of facilities reviewed, met or exceeded code in all major categories (i.e., Building Envelope, HVAC - Heating, HVAC - Cooling, Electric Power/Motors, Lighting Fixtures, and Energy Management Systems)

**Notes:**
On the measure-specific front, we found that technologies were surpassing code in a number of areas::
Technologies Surpassing - Lighting, Motors, HVAC Heating Unit Efficiencies, etc.
Technologies Lagging -  Piping Insulation, etc.

Nearly half of the facilities we reviewed, fully complied and often exceeded code in every major building practice or equipment measure.
When there were deficiencies, they tended to be minor and never in more than one or two of the 14 major categories we assessed.
I'll highlight some of the key measure-specific findings in just a moment, but first I'd like to go over the methodologies used in conducting our study.

## Methodology

- C/I New Construction Profile (1997-1999)
- Plans & Print Reviews (30 buildings)
- Physical Site Inspections (12 facilities)
- Equipment Supplier/Design Engineer, and Building Official Interviews (16 surveys)
- Review of Existing Studies (20 reports)
- Tentative Findings & Roundtables

**Notes:**
Project called for number of research tasks to be done simultaneously: 
- 1st, a profile of new commercial construction activity developed for state. FW Dodge data used, along with info from NH’s electric utilities on known construction projects, also other data sources & publications (ie. “Construction Works in Process” & “NE Construction News”)
Based on info from construction activities profile, plan & print reviews and physical site inspections were performed on number of different building types (sample sizes were discussed & agreed to by client). 
Plan/Print Reviews: 30 Buildings Total (16 small commercial, including 1 chain-type; 9 large commercial, including 2 schools, 2 hotels, 1 hospital, 1 large retail & 1 large apartment building; 3 small industrial; and 2 large ind.) 
Physical Inspections: 12 total (6 small commercial, 4 large coml, 2 industrial)
Purpose of reviews/inspections was to determine levels of efficient equipment  being spec’d and how this is carried thru to installation
Simultaneously, Interviews conducted : 5 regional Equipment Suppliers, 2 Design Engineers, 9 Code Officials (Interview Guides developed & reviewed before implementation.) 
Purpose of interviews - to get opinions from those designing, distributing & inspecting projects on what levels of efficiency they are seeing purchased & installed for new construction in state
Another task was to review of existing studies: in total nearly 20 related reports & studies were tabulated and reviewed for relevance (the 3-page table in your handout identifying standard practice, premium practice and code-required efficiency levels came from this research & was an extremely helpful and important part of this project) 
Research summarized in number of bulleted , tentative findings & then reasonableness tested in Roundtable made up of code officials, equipment suppliers & design engineers
Results were then compiled into a final report - which are summarized in the next few slides

## Data Collection Results

**Notes:**
This slide shows some results from our construction profile:
- Over 1500 new commercial construction projects in 1999

Geographic coverage/representation was important in this study. 
- We were able to use the profile results to identify the town, in each of NH’s 10 counties, having the greatest amount of new commercial construction activity.  This information was then used to help guide our selection of plans & prints for review, site inspections, and building officials to interview

As you can see more than 1/3 of the states 1999 commercial new construction activity comes from 10 cities & towns across the state

## Construction Profile Results

**Notes:**
The profile allowed us to identify other trends:

This slide groups commercial construction activities by building size (small/large) within each county

## Construction Profile Results - continued

**Notes:**
And this slide shows they types of buildings being constructed within each county:

- Assembly (churches, etc.)
- Hospitals
- Housing
- Manufacturing
- Office
- Retail
- Schools, and
- Warehouses

## Premium, Standard and Code Efficiency Practices

- Cornerstone of this research project
- Covers building envelope, electric power, HVAC equipment, service water heating, lighting fixtures, lighting controls, and energy management system measures
- Initially based on secondary data sources
- Tested and revised during interviews, site visits and roundtables

**Notes:**
As I mentioned, an important part of this research was the identification of what is currently deemed standard efficiency, premium efficiency, and to compare these against what the states energy code currently requires.

There is a three-page table in your handout, that shows the end result of this effort.

An original version was developed based on secondary research, and was modified and tested during our telephone interviews and roundtable.

The table addresses equipment and building practices in each of the major areas covered by the energy code and provides an excellent starting point for discussion of code changes. 

## Measure-Specific Results

**Notes:**
- Quickly review the contents & findings shown in this slide.
- Our report provided significantly more information on these items, including some nifty charts & graphs
REMIND - THE FOCUS OF RESEARCH IS ON ENERGY PORTION OF THE CODE (not safety, or health issues)  

Building Envelope: Northern NH building insulation practices tended to exceed code
HVAC Cooling: although more than 1/2 the buildings reviewed exceeded code in this area, we were surprised to find that 20% were below code requirements
Motors: when spec'd always @ levels above code, even when not, actual motors installed that exceeded code requirements
EMS, although not required by code, were found in most facilities sampled.

## Recommendations

- Near-Term Actions
- Communicate findings and pursue training
- Integrate code with available software tools
- Mid-Term Actions
- Use findings to help prioritize potential follow-up initiatives and to aid in design of targeted energy efficiency programs
- Longer-Term Actions
- Consider updating and clarifying energy code

**Notes:**
A major purpose of this study was to report back to the State’s Public Utilities Commission with recommendations on the need for code changes. Working with Kwasi and the rest of the study group we identified a number of near, mid & longer-term action:
Near Term: - Communicate findings: PUC briefing, public release of report, presentations to trade groups, conferences (New Orleans)
- Training: identify rules of thumb & develop monthly sessions around the state to increase code compliance & improve awareness of energy efficiency practices of target audiences (including architects, design engineers, building code officials)
- Use & promote existing software tools to help design professionals more quickly & effectively assess & meet or exceed code compliance
Mid-Term: - Use barriers identified in this study to inform the design & implementation of new C/I energy efficiency programs
Longer-Term: - Code modification: consider modifying the code to make it easier to understand & improve the compliance process to a less cumbersome format. At a minimum, consider using the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) version of ASHRAE 90.1, 1989 (more understandable "code-type" format). Also, consider updating to ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1,1999 (currently under review by the U.S. DOE)

## Conclusions

- Valuable approach to assess status quo
- Increases awareness and engages key stakeholders and change agents
- Promotes constructive dialogue between building code officials, architects/design engineers, equipment vendors, utilities and their regulators
- Provides solid foundation/rationale for energy code updates

**Notes:**
So what’s this all mean to an audience outside of New Hampshire?

- This approach has turned out to be an extremely cost-effective way of to assess the level of energy efficiency currently being incorporated into new construction projects in a particular state or region.
- By involving key stakeholders and market actors through interviews and roundtables, important dialogue can begin and awareness levels can be increased.
- Where the research identifies opportunities for efficiency improvements, this approach can provide a solid foundation for energy code updates.