BACK ON TRACK: The EIA prepares to start a new round of its federal energy use survey of commercial buildings

摘要

The ability to accurately measure and compare the energy use of commercial buildings is critical to improving their performance and increasing standards of efficiency. The compilation of performance data for the purposes of comparison and analysis will ensure new benchmarks. Recent building codes, such as the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) are aiming to increase energy efficiency in new buildings by 30% over the 2006 edition and 17% over the 2009 edition. In addition, policies, such as the Better Buildings Initiative are prompting partners in the private and public sectors to make America's buildings 20% more efficient over the next decade. Therefore, data collection is proving vital to gauging baselines of energy consumption and establishing benchmarks.