New California Energy Code Adopted

BOMA San Francisco Members:

Our tireless advocates at BOMA California have reported that the California Energy Commission (CEC) voted to adopt new energy efficiency standards for both residential and commercial buildings recently. Also referred to as Title 24, the new standards will take effect on January 1, 2014.

The standards are generally believed to be a 15% energy efficiency increase for new commercial construction, and a similar increase for existing buildings. Some of the major changes for non-residential new construction include guidelines for:

• High performance windows, sensors and controls that allow buildings to use daylighting;
• Efficient process equipment in supermarkets, computer data centers, commercial kitchens, laboratories, and parking garages;
• Advanced lighting controls to synchronize light levels with daylight and building occupancy, and provide demand response capability;
• Solar-ready roofs to allow businesses to add solar photovoltaic panels at a future date;
• Cool roof technologies.

California continues to push the envelope and lead the nation as it pertains to energy efficiency standards. The real estate industry has been able help drive progress through its own innovation and desire to build the most energy efficiency and economically feasible buildings.

Click here to read an L.A. Times story about the adoption.

Click here to read the new standards.