March 9, 2004 |
2004-R-0307 | |
ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN SCHOOLS AND STATE BUILDINGS BILL | ||
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By: Kevin E. McCarthy, Principal Analyst | ||
You asked for a summary of sHB 5112, “An Act Concerning Energy Efficiency in School and State Buildings,” favorably reported by the Energy and Technology Committee.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN SCHOOLS AND STATE BUILDINGS
The bill imposes new energy efficiency, renewable energy, and related requirements on state-owned or -funded buildings. It requires that all design proposals for major capital projects comply with standard 90. 1-1999 of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). (Building construction and renovation projects under the Department of Public Works’ supervision are already subject to this standard; projects supervised by other agencies are subject to an earlier version of the standard. ) By law, a major capital project is the construction or renovation of any building which has at least 10,000 gross square feet and that is (1) owned by the state or (2) constructed or renovated wholly or in part using state funds. (In the case of state-funded school projects, the minimum size criterion does not apply. ) In the case of smaller state-owned or -financed housing projects, the project itself must meet the ASHRAE standard. For all of these projects, a licensed architect or professional engineer must certify that fundamental building elements and systems are designed, installed, and calibrated to operate as intended or that these requirements will be met under existing contracts.
In addition, all of these projects and any existing or new building owned or leased by the state must earn eight points from the measures described in Table 1. For example, the renovation of an existing building could comply with this requirement by reducing its energy costs by 15% below that achieved by complying with the ASHRAE standard (three points), obtaining 10% of its total energy use from the use of on-site renewable energy systems (two points), and (1) demonstrating that the entire building is designed, built, and calibrated to operate as intended, (2) operating without hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HFCs) or halons, and (3) providing for on-going accountability and optimization of energy consumption performance over time (one point apiece).
Table 1: Point System
Measure |
Points |
Modification of an existing building- each 5% reduction in energy costs beyond that achieved by complying with ASHRAE 90. 1-1999 |
1 |
Construction of a new building-15% reduction in energy costs beyond that achieved by complying with ASHRAE 90. 1-1999 |
1 |
Construction of a new building-5% additional reduction in energy costs beyond that achieved by complying with ASHRAE 90. 1-1999 |
1 |
Obtaining 5% of the building’s total energy use from the use of on-site renewable energy systems |
1 |
Obtaining 10% of the building’s total energy use from the use of on-site renewable energy systems |
2 |
Obtaining 20% of the building’s total energy use from the use of on-site renewable energy systems |
3 |
Demonstrating, through use of a commissioning authority independent of the design team, that the entire building is designed, built, and calibrated to operate as intended |
1 |
Having heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, and fire systems that do not contain HFCs or halons |
1 |
Providing for on-going accountability and optimization of energy consumption performance over time |
1 |
Having a contract that runs for at least two years that provides for obtaining the building’s electricity demand from renewable resource |
1 |
The bill takes effect October 1, 2004.
KM: nf