Major changes to requirements regarding building envelope, lighting, mechanical and the energy cost budget are contained in the newly published energy standard from ASHRAE and IES.
ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, incorporates 110 addenda, reflecting changes made through the public review process. Appendix F gives brief descriptions and publication dates of the addenda to 90.1-2010 reflected in this new edition.
“While many things have changed since the first version of Standard 90 was published in 1975, the need to reduce building energy use and cost has not,” Steve Skalko, chair of the committee that wrote the 2013 standard, said. “This standard represents many advances over the 2010 standard, as we worked toward our goal of making the standard 40 to 50 percent more stringent than the 2004 standard.”
“Achieving the stringency goals established for the 2013 standard presented a challenge in reducing the requirements for lighting,” Rita Harrold, director of technology for the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, said. “While interior lighting power densities (LPD) were re-evaluated and most lowered, there continues to be an ongoing concern about maintaining quality of lighting installations for occupant satisfaction and comfort while achieving energy savings. The focus in the 2013 standard, therefore, was not just on lowering LPDs but on finding ways to achieve savings by adding more controls and daylighting requirements as well as including lighting limits for exterior applications based on jurisdictional zoning.”
The most significant changes are:
- Building Envelope. Opaque elements and fenestration requirements have been revised to increase stringency while maintaining a reasonable level of cost-effectiveness. Opaque and fenestration assemblies in Tables 5.5-1 through 5.5-8 are revised in most climates. These changes include:
- Criteria requiring double glazed fenestration in many climates
- Minimum visible transmittance/solar heat gain coefficient (VT/SHGC) ratio to enable good daylighting with minimum solar gain, while not restricting triple- and quadruple-glazing.
- Simplification of the skylighting criteria.
- Lighting: These changes include improvements to daylighting and daylighting controls, space-by-space lighting power density limits, thresholds for toplighting and revised controls requirements and format.
- Mechanical: Equipment efficiencies are increased for heat pumps, packaged terminal air conditioners, single package vertical heat pumps and air conditioners evaporative condensers. Also, fan efficiency requirements are introduced for the first time. Additional provisions address commercial refrigeration equipment, improved controls on heat rejection and boiler equipment, requirements for expanded use of energy recovery, small motor efficiencies and fan power control and credits. Control revision requirements have been added to the standard such as direct digital controls in many applications. Finally, the 2013 edition completes the work that was begun on equipment efficiencies for chillers in the 2010 edition.
- Energy Cost Budget (ECB) & Modeling: Improvements were made to the ECB and Appendix G provisions to clarify the use of the prescriptive provisions when performing building energy use modeling. In addition, these sections were revised to enhance capturing daylighting when doing the modeling calculations.
Another important change for the 2013 standard is the first alternate compliance path in Chapter 6. Section 6.6 was added to the 2010 edition to provide a location for alternate methods of compliance with the standard. The first such alternate path has been developed for computer room systems and was formulated with the assistance of ASHRAE technical committee 9.9, Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment. This path uses the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric established by the datacom industry. This alternate efficiency path format provides a framework that could be considered for other energy using facets of buildings not easily covered in the prescriptive provisions of the standard.
Also new to the standard are requirements for operating escalators and moving walkways at minimum speed per ASME A17.1 when not conveying passengers.
The cost of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is 135 ($115, ASHRAE members). To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Contact Center at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 678-539-2129, or visit www.ashrae.org/bookstore.
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is a building technology society with more than 50,000 members worldwide. The Society and its members focus on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability. Through research, standards writing, publishing, certification and continuing education, ASHRAE shapes tomorrow’s built environment today.
Related Stories
| May 15, 2012
Don’t be insulated from green building
Examining the roles of insulation and manufacturing in sustainability’s growth.
| May 15, 2012
National Tradesmen Day set for Sept. 21
IRWIN Tools invites the nation to honor "The Real Working Hands that Build America and Keep it Running Strong".
| May 15, 2012
SAGE Electrochromics to become wholly owned subsidiary of Saint-Gobain
This deal will help SAGE expand into international markets, develop new products and complete construction of the company’s new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Faribault, Minn.
| May 14, 2012
Codes harvest rainwater
IAPMO’s Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code Supplement could make rainwater harvesting systems commonplace by clearly outlining safe installation and maintenance practices.
| May 14, 2012
Plumbing research coalition to study drainline transport issue
The effort is aimed at determining if decreasing levels of water flow––caused by increasingly efficient plumbing fixtures––are sufficient to clear debris from plumbing pipes.
| May 14, 2012
SOM to break ground on supertall structure in China
The 1,740-feet (530-meter) tall tower will house offices, 300 service apartments and a 350-room, 5-star hotel beneath an arched top.
| May 14, 2012
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture design Seoul’s Dancing Dragons
Supertall two-tower complex located in Seoul’s Yongsan International Business District.
| May 14, 2012
SMPS and Deltek announce alliance
A/E/C industry leaders partner to advance technology’s role in design firm marketing and business development.
| May 14, 2012
ArchiCAD e-Specs integration unveiled
Architects, engineers and construction professionals use InterSpec’s e-SPECS products on thousands of projects annually to maintain synchronization between construction models, drawings, and project specifications.
| May 11, 2012
2012 White Paper: High-Performance Reconstructed Buildings: The 99% Solution
Download the complete White Paper, Chapters 1-10