Where Should We Focus Efforts to Improve Building Energy Code Enforcement Rates? Results From A Research Study in Florida

摘要

Most states have adopted commercial and residential building energy codes and many arernplanning adoption of more conservative codes over time. While code language that requiresrnmeasures for decreased energy use will help improve conservation, the realized conservationrnrelated to future construction is limited in part to how well energy codes are enforced. A researchrnstudy was completed in 2012 that evaluated the residential and commercial energy coderncompliance enforcement in the State of Florida for buildings built to the 2007 code with 2009rncode supplement. Buildings were selected randomly around Florida using guidance from thernU.S. Department of Energy’s Building Energy Codes Program. Residential research involved arnsample size of 43 buildings and was limited to single-family detached homes. Commercialrnbuilding research included a random sample size of 50 buildings in various size groups classifiedrnfrom less than 25,000 ft2 up to 250,000ft2. Primary areas of the energy code were selected tornevaluate how well compliance was enforced in each building. Submitted energy code forms werernsought for randomly selected buildings where owners granted access for an evaluation. The asbuiltrnaudited building was compared to the claimed efficiency submitted on energy code forms.rnNinety percent of the residential buildings were found to be passing the performance codernalthough forms submitted had one or more items incorrectly specified in almost all cases. Onrnaverage, 84% of what was specified on the form complied. Many jurisdictions did not havernsufficient commercial building code forms to conduct a field evaluation. This occurred 25% ofrnthe time based on our commercial building sampling process. Of those commercial buildingsrnfield audited, on average 81% of the specified components were found to be in compliance. Thisrnpaper describes the research method, audit procedure and results, which include a list of the toprnoccurring areas of non-compliance and suggestions to improve compliance enforcement.