ASHRAE looks for standard building rating
31st August 2015
USA: ASHRAE is looking to write a new standard to bring together the many building energy performance ratings existing around the world.
While many building rating programmes exist worldwide, ASHRAE insists that there is nothing in the industry that standardises the contents of those programmes and ensures users are knowledgeable about what impacts their ratings.
ASHRAE sees the proposed standard, which is currently open for public comment, serving as the “backbone” of such rating systems.
ASHRAE Standard 214P, Standard for Determining and Expressing Building Energy Performance in a Rating Program, is being written to standardise building energy rating programmes by requiring the minimum content of any labels associated with rating programmes, establishing minimum requirements for rating programme documentation and other essential components in rating programmes.
“There are many entities that are rating buildings utilising a number of different building rating systems yielding varying results,” Wayne Stoppelmoor, chair of the Standard committee, said.
“Feedback from government and regulatory agencies has shown there is an overwhelming need for a standard that provides uniformity in the building energy labelling and disclosure process. We want to provide a non-commercial consensus standard that can be used in international, national and regional legislation, policy making and regulation activities. The goal is to write a standard that provides guidance for establishing rating systems that produce meaningful and consistent results.”
Stoppelmoor said he sees the proposed standard as a way to identify what rating systems should be used to comply with building energy disclosure ordinances and as a guideline for those developing rating systems. It is anticipated that the proposed standard will have minimal impact on existing rating systems.
The proposed standard is currently open for public comment until September 28. To learn more or to comment, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.
