State Energy Code Compliance Measurement Activities
Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana) Pilot Study
as of September 2011
We welcome updates to the information on this page.
Update
September 2011: For the Northwest Commercial Lighting Study (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana), 91 commercial buildings plans were reviewed to evaluate code lighting requirements. Field inspections were conducted on 29 of the buildings. The Northwest Jurisdictional Survey Study implemented a survey approach to determine current residential and commercial data collection, documentation, and storage practices, and identify opportunities for improvement.
Background
Two pilot studies were conducted across four Northwest states, and were focused on: 1) identifying energy-code related data collection and storage practices and 2) determining lighting rate compliance in commercial buildings. Energy code-related data are not uniformly collected in the Northwest states and may not be collected at all in some jurisdictions, which makes consistently tracking energy code impacts difficult or impossible. For the survey study, jurisdictions representative of each state as a whole were selected based on demographic characteristics such as number of building permits issued per year, number of building department staff, and the mix of buildings permitted. The lighting compliance study focused on lighting energy consumption in commercial buildings, an area identified as having a low compliance rate.
Scope of Work
For the first Northwest study, on-site interviews were conducted in each jurisdiction to determine current data collection and storage practices. An electronic permitting system allowed state-wide collection of uniform data and identified barriers to its adoption. Additionally, to identify documentation practices, five residential and five nonresidential plans were reviewed for energy code adoption practices. Interviews were conducted with building code administrative agencies in each state to verify existing data collection and plan retention requirements. Data was collected using the BECP-developed survey, which was modified in some states to fit specific circumstances.
In addition, the Northwest Lighting Design Lab reviewed plans for 91 commercial buildings across the Northwest to evaluate lighting power density calculations. Field inspections were conducted on 29 of the 91 buildings using the BECP commercial checklist.
Goals/Objectives
- Identify data collection and storage practices in selected jurisdictions.
- Recalculate the lighting power density of 91 commercial buildings, based on plans, and compare results with reported lighting power density.
- Prepare a final report on code compliance and provide recommendations for code language and/or educational opportunities to improve code compliance.