ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 211P, Standard for Commercial Building Energy Audits

The commercial energy audit industry has been largely unregulated and the work products that are labeled “energy audits” vary greatly in scope, rigor and quality, now comes the public draft ASHRAE Standard for Commercial Building Energy Audits

This standard is to establish minimum performance levels for energy audits and bring some order to the chaos. Prior work on ASHRAE’s Special Publication “Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits” (aka “the green book”) has helped to define terms and Levels 1, 2 and 3 are now commonly used in the U.S. and abroad as a shorthand for audit scoping. However, the prior work was not written in code enforceable language, and the “green book” left much room for interpretation.

With mandatory benchmark energy audits required by cities around the U.S. there is a need for more closely ensuring audits are held to the appropriate level of rigor and depth. Greater consistency in approach also holds the promise for lowering costs if energy auditors can establish consistent reporting, rather than custom approaches that are often required by different contracting entities.

Open for public comment until Jan. 4, 2016.

“The standard has the potential to make a huge impact on completing energy-saving projects in existing buildings,” says Jim Kelsey, chair of the Standard 211P Committee. The new standard will build on earlier ASHRAE guidelines for audits (i.e. scope 1, 2, or 3)

The goal of the new standard is to define audit approaches, information that should be in an audit, and way that information should communicate to the facility manager. Open for review and comment until Jan. 4, 2016.

In the interest of considering the narrowing distance between comparable standards and methods for energy performance (i.e. IPMVP, DOE-SEP, ISO 50001, etc.) a survey of draft standards terminology reveals that “baseline” is mentioned of three pages of the proposed standard; M&V 64 pages; meter 15 pages; utility 15 pages; audit 64 pages; ISO 50001 zero pages; IPMVP 1 page; CEM 7 pages; calibration two pages; water, gas, electric metering multiple pages.

Link: DRAFT ASHRAE Standard

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