ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004, 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 Policy Act. The Act requires all states to certify that they have state energy codes in place that are at least as stringent as 90.1-2004, or justify why they cannot comply.
“The quantitative analysis of the energy consumption of buildings built to Standard 90.1-2004, as compared with buildings built to Standard 90.1-1999, indicates national source energy savings of approximately 13.9 percent of commercial building energy consumption. Site energy savings are estimated to be approximately 11.9 percent,” according to the ruling published in The Federal Register.
“ASHRAE is committed to continually improving building energy performance, so we are pleased with this recognition that the 2004 standard saves more energy,” ASHRAE PresidentBill Harrisonsaid. “ASHRAE is currently working on the 2010 version of Standard 90.1 with a goal of achieving 30 percent energy savings compared to 90.1-2004 as part of our target to achieve market-viable net-zero-energy buildings by 2015.”
The DOE noted that the newer version of the standard contained 13 positive impacts on energy efficiency. These impacts included changes made through the public review process in which users of the standard comment and offer guidance on proposed requirements to the standard. The positive impacts include:
- Removed explicit allowance for
supply air into non-occupied isolation areas.
- Limitations
of the use of dampers in closed circuit cooling towers in place of water bypass
valves and piping.
- Additions of insulation
requirements for buried ductwork.
- Mapping of
envelope requirements to new climate zones, which led to increased stringency of
envelope requirements.
- Mapping of economizer
requirements to new climate zones, which led to greater geographic expansion of
economizer requirements.
- Addition of requirements
for ventilation fan controls.
- Lowered size range
for part-load fan power limitation.
- Addition of
requirements for heat pump pool heaters.
- Complete
replacement of interior lighting power density allowances.
- Revised exterior lighting power density
allowances.
- Addition of occupancy sensor
requirements for classrooms, meeting and lunch rooms.
- Lower retail sales lighting power allowance.
- New exit sign wattage requirement.
Source:ASHRAE
