A new standard for the design of high-performance green buildings is set to revolutionize the building industry.
Published by ASHRAE in conjunction with IES and the U.S. Green Building Council, Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is the first code-intended commercial green building standard in the United States.
The standard provides a long-needed green building foundation for those who strive to design, build and operate green buildings. From site location to energy use to recycling, this standard will set the foundation for green buildings through its adoption into local codes. It covers key topic areas similar to green building rating systems: site sustainability, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality and the buildings impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources.
ASHRAE 189.1’s energy section is based on ASHRAE’s 90.1 energy standard, but is designed to achieve 30% energy savings compared to 90.1-2007. A few examples of ASHRAE 189.1’s requirements: Major building systems such as HVAC and lighting are required to be submetered and the data fed to a data acquisition system for storage and later retrieval. Buildings must provide for future installation of on-site renewable energy systems. Lighting power densities are capped at 90% of those in 90.1-2007, while the use of automatic lighting controls is expanded to include daylight harvesting, manual-ON and bilevel occupancy sensing, and bilevel switching in some stack and egress and outdoor applications. In addition, buildings must contain automatic demand-response systems enabling peak electric demand to be reduced by at least 10%.
Click here to learn more about ASHRAE 189.1 and preview a copy of it online.
Meanwhile, the International Code Council (ICC), creator of the IECC model energy code and other International Codes, is producing its own green construction standard, called the International Green Construction Code (IGCC). Final publication is scheduled for the release of the 2012 ICC family of codes, including the 2012 IECC.
Additionally, California is moving ahead with its own green building code, approved on January 12, 2010 and set to become effective January 1, 2011. Called CAL Green, it will apply to all commercial and residential building construction in the state. Building owners will be able to label their buildings as CAL Green compliant, once the building passes inspection, without the added cost of third-party certification programs.
LightNOW’s take: More than 30 states and 135 cities already require LEED in public construction, and in some cases, require or, more often, encourage LEED in private construction, usually through tax credits or similar mechanism. These jurisdictions are fertile ground for ASHRAE 189.1, which will likely start as a specialty building code for public construction in the greenest states, but may well subsequently represent the next phase of evolution of commercial building energy codes.
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