ASHRAE will now offer an Energy Label by June, 2009
The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has decided to offer a Building Energy Label that will use Energy Star measurements. The goal is to provide a measure of both the design efficiency and operational performance of buildings in a way that will be similar to that of the U. S. Government's Energy Star Program.
it is likely that this label will appear side by side with an Energy Star label, and resemble systems in common use in Europe. The goal is to appeal to the increasing need for buildings, especially in the public sector to meet certain minimum performance standards. ASHRAE has stated that they do not intend to compete with Energy Star, but rather add an additional recognition to the rating process. ASHRAE plans to extend the use of this label system to buildings that cannot currently be rated under Energy Star. At this time, only 60 percent of commercial building can use the Energy Star rating system.
As with Energy Star, the rating system will be based on the comparison of base-line building performance with the actual building performance. These base-line performance ratings are obtained from data produced by the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey, which is based on a random sampling of similar building types every four years, and then compiled into a data base.
The effort by ASHRAE has not been too well received by Energy Star users, as they feel that it will not add that much to the already popular energy efficiency benchmark standard. These people go on to add that Energy Star is attempting to address the concerns of its limited application at the commercial level.
This information appeared in a recent Environmental Design and Construction article.
The article made no reference to a new ASHRAE Standard for high performance buildings, which will be known as ASHRAE 189. This standard when finally adapted, will be the basis for future LEED rating systems.
it is likely that this label will appear side by side with an Energy Star label, and resemble systems in common use in Europe. The goal is to appeal to the increasing need for buildings, especially in the public sector to meet certain minimum performance standards. ASHRAE has stated that they do not intend to compete with Energy Star, but rather add an additional recognition to the rating process. ASHRAE plans to extend the use of this label system to buildings that cannot currently be rated under Energy Star. At this time, only 60 percent of commercial building can use the Energy Star rating system.
As with Energy Star, the rating system will be based on the comparison of base-line building performance with the actual building performance. These base-line performance ratings are obtained from data produced by the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey, which is based on a random sampling of similar building types every four years, and then compiled into a data base.
The effort by ASHRAE has not been too well received by Energy Star users, as they feel that it will not add that much to the already popular energy efficiency benchmark standard. These people go on to add that Energy Star is attempting to address the concerns of its limited application at the commercial level.
This information appeared in a recent Environmental Design and Construction article.
The article made no reference to a new ASHRAE Standard for high performance buildings, which will be known as ASHRAE 189. This standard when finally adapted, will be the basis for future LEED rating systems.
Posted by Alan L. Englander at 3/2/2009 1:04 PM 
Categories: LEED, ASHRAE, Energy Effeciency, Energy Star
Categories: LEED, ASHRAE, Energy Effeciency, Energy Star
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