Sept. 2, 2011: ASHRAE Standard 90.1 Established as National Reference Standard
ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, has been established by the DOE as the commercial building reference standard for state building energy codes under the federal Energy Conservation and Production Act. As a result, states are required to certify by July 20, 2013, that they have reviewed and updated the provisions of their commercial building code regarding energy efficiency, including a demonstration that the provisions of their commercial building codes regarding energy efficiency meet or exceed 90.1-2007. DOE also issued a rule that requires new federal buildings, for which the design for construction begins on or after Oct. 11, 2012, to meet the requirements of 90.1-2007.
Prior to the new rules, federal and commercial buildings had to meet requirements in the 2004 standard.
“We are pleased with this recognition that the 2007 standard saves more energy than the 2004 standard, thereby pushing the marketplace toward more energy-efficient buildings,” said American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) President Ron Jarnagin. “ASHRAE continues to build on the foundation of efficiency contained in Standard 90.1. We recently published the 2010 version of the standard, which results in more than 30 percent energy savings over the 2004 version. We currently are working on the 2013 standard, with a renewed focus on increasing the stringency to achieve a significant reduction in energy consumption.”
“The DOE has determined that the quantitative analysis of the energy consumption of buildings built to Standard 90.1-2007, as compared to buildings built to Standard 90.1-2004, indicates national source energy savings of approximately 3.9 percent of commercial building consumption,” according to the DOE. “Additionally, DOE has determined site energy savings are estimated to be approximately 4.6 percent.”
DOE noted that the newer version of the standard contained 11 positive impacts on energy efficiency. The positive impacts include:
• Increased requirements for building vestibules;
• Removal of data processing centers and hotel rooms from exceptions to HVAC; and
• Modification of requirements regarding demand controlled ventilation, fan power limitations, retail display lighting requirements, cooling tower testing requirements, commercial boiler requirements, part load fan requirements, opaque envelope requirements and fenestration envelope requirements.
Publication date: 08/29/2011
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