Helping States Measure Compliance
Procedures to Measure Compliance
The Department of Energy realizes that the rate of compliance with energy codes will be difficult and costly to determine with precision and accuracy. To help states uniformly address the- respective rates of compliance with their codes, BECP is developing procedures that states can readily apply to measure and report compliance with building energy codes.
These procedures will be made available to states as they begin to implement their plans to achieve compliance with their energy codes. They will include:
- Guidance for home rule states and states with codes other than the target codes
- Informational sheets on approaching the jurisdiction prior to the onsite evaluation
- Guidelines for developing a random sample of jurisdictions and buildings within those jurisdictions
- Recommended certification for those conducting the onsite evaluations
- Training materials for onsite evaluators
- Guidelines for conducting a plan check on the selected buildings
- Guidelines for conducting an onsite building evaluation on the selected buildings
- Inspection checklists to be used by evaluators performing the onsite inspection
- Guidelines for derivation of the overall state compliance metric
- Training materials for the target codes, and to address specific code infractions
- Guidelines for meeting the annual measurement requirements
- Suggestions for additional information gathering opportunities that might be afforded by this effort
- A survey of questions for evaluating administrative and permitting/inspection processes of the jurisdiction and guidelines for collecting and using that information
The procedures will be accompanied by support tools that will allow each state to effectively address compliance verification.
Compliance Tools & Support
Software Support
BECP's code-compliance software, REScheck™ supports the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code® (IECC) and COMcheck™ supports the 2009 IECC and ASHRAE Standards 90.1-2007.
Training & Support Materials
In addition, BECP anticipates developing automated and paper tools to assist states in implementing their plans to achieve 90 percent compliance with their energy codes.
An online "portal" will be developed to provide state access to these materials. The portal will also be a collection point for compliance metrics, to be stored in a national compliance database. The code compliance database will allow states to review the activities of other states and to track state, regional, and national trends. The compliance portal and associated database will assist with communication of activities and lessons learned across states; will provide access to tools and documents; will help ensure that compliance efforts are consistently applied; and will provide an opportunity to consolidate results of studies into regional and national metrics.
BECP anticipates making the following information and tools available on the Code Compliance Portal. Some of the features may have restricted access.
- Links to compliance studies, both past studies and studies resulting from this effort
- Metrics collected from onsite evaluations by jurisdiction, and aggregated to provide regional and national summaries
- Results from process surveys conducted by jurisdiction
- Evaluation checklists for various building use types and climates
- Tools for generating appropriate random samples
- Downloadable PDF files containing much of the information described here, including onsite audit guidelines and fact sheets.
2009 IECC and ASHRAE 90.1-2007 presentations and webcasts are currently available.
Additional Compliance Resources
Compliance Studies
Compliance studies contain links to studies performed at least in part to determine compliance with an applicable energy code. These include both survey-based (telephone) studies, and studies involving onsite evaluation of a sample of buildings.
Best Practices and Baseline Studies
Best practices studies include studies performed to identify best practices for supporting energy codes implementation and enforcement. Baseline studies are studies performed to evaluate energy use in buildings, market evaluations, construction baselines and demographics. These include both survey-based studies and studies involving onsite evaluation of a sample of buildings.