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Building Energy Codes Program

Program Highlights - December/January 2008

Welcome to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program's (BECP) bi-monthly highlights. These highlights provide the latest information on our work to increase the energy efficiency of the nation's commercial and residential buildings.

ASHRAE SSPC 90.1 Annual Meeting
A number of proposals and analysis results were presented to ASHRAE's SSPC 90.1 at their Annual Meeting in New York City in January 2008. These proposals and analysis results support the 30% improvement of ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2010. A few key outcomes include:
  • A comprehensive proposal to incorporate skylights and roof monitors, and window control requirements in the 2010 standard was submitted for public review. Additional proposals being developed relate to skylights, manual-on control of automatic lighting controls, and an advanced control incentive option.
  • A new proposal targeting a more stringent minimum chiller efficiency requirement is being developed.
Advancing the Residential Provisions of the IECC
In support of the goal to advance the residential provisions of the IECC by 30%, DOE
  • Engaged the proponents and other interested parties in dialogue, including participating in meetings with both the Energy Efficient Codes Coalition and the Advanced Building Coalition, and suggested improvements to a number of proponents
  • Developed a set of comprehensive recommendations regarding support, opposition, or neutrality with respect to the 150+ proposals, in preparation for the February IECC hearings.
Software Updates in December/January
REScheck™ for Macintosh, version 4.1.3. The 2006 IECC and 2006 IRC are now code menu options. The Sustainable Energy Standard (Pima, AZ) and New Hampshire state codes were changed so they are now based on the 2006 IECC. Note that the high-efficiency equipment tradeoff portion of the 2006 IECC is unavailable in the MAC version until a MAC-compatible performance evaluation engine is incorporated. Until that time, MAC users that need the high efficiency equipment evaluation option are directed to use the Windows-based version of REScheck 4.1.3 or REScheck-Web.

COMcheck™ for Macintosh, version 3.5.2. Exterior lighting compliance has been added for new projects using the 90.1-2004 and 2006 IECC code base and alteration projects using the 90.1-2004 code base. Various application run-time and installation changes were made including upgrading the Java run-time engine and specification. Temporary report file names now have 'time-stamps' included with them to prevent generation of corrupt PDF files. In addition, two state-specific updates were made. The New Hampshire state code option has been added and is based on the 2006 IECC, and the New York state code option was updated to the 2003 IECC.

Visit Our Website
Visit www.energycodes.gov for training, software, and news. Website hits totaled 2,779,812 in December and 3,848,772 in January.

         bar chart displaying BECP Website hits per month

Three-Part Series on the Requirements of ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007
To register or to watch a video of a previously delivered event, go to: www.energycodes.gov/training/onlinetraining/webcast_standard9012007.stm
Part 1, Lighting Overview was held on January 10th with 2085 attendees, the largest webcast to date. It is now available as an online training video on our website: ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007.

Part 2, Mechanical Overview will be broadcast on February 28, 2008.

Part 3, Envelope Overview will take place on March 27, 2008.
Calendar of Events
calendar  
Advertise to the Building Energy Codes Community! BECP invites website visitors to add a training or event for the building energy codes community on their Calendar of Events -- A community source for buildings-related conferences and workshops as well as national energy code training and state energy code training conducted across the nations. In December and January, 51 events were added to the calendar.

Technical Assistance to Users
We've got code answers! In December and January, we received and responded to 639 Technical Support inquires. Email your questions to BECP Technical Support at techsupport@becp.pnl.gov, or submit an inquiry online.

Technical Assistance to States
New Hampshire
Software changes requested by New Hampshire were released in December with REScheck 4.1.3 and COMcheck 3.5.2.

Massachusetts
Minor changes to the software compliance reports were made in December at the state's request.

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