ASHRAE Journal - August 2014 - 18

Presidential address

for a renewed focus on this issue. Existing standards and
guidelines are being revised, and new standards are being
produced, to help guide the industry, and many research
projects are under way to expand our technical knowledge. Let's look at some of these efforts.

Building Energy Quotient (bEQ)

Standard 214P, Standard for Measuring and Expressing Building
Energy Performance in a Rating Program, will provide a standardized approach and methodology for measuring and
expressing building energy performance in a rating program. It also will standardize the format and label associated with building energy rating programs and establish
minimum requirements for rating program documentation. The standard will apply to new and existing buildings.
The hope is to have a first draft of the proposed standard by May 1, 2015, for public review, with a publication
date of January 2016.

ASHRAE's building energy assessment and labeling
program, bEQ, is one of the most advanced and potentially valuable programs that ASHRAE has currently
available. This past year we made a number of changes
to the program to make it more attractive and open it up
to more users; but, unfortunately, we have quite a ways
Research
to go before bEQ gets the recognition it deserves.
ASHRAE has eight active projects that fall into the
In May, I attended the EE Global conference sponenergy conservation category. The total dollar value of
sored by Alliance to Save Energy.
these projects is $1.25 million.
I attended a panel focused
One of those is research on
on "Moving Beyond Codes:
energy targets via Research
What are the Most Promising
Project 1651, "Development
Advancements in Disclosure,
of Maximum Technically
Rating and Labeling Processes?"
Achievable Energy Targets for
There was a discussion on the
Commercial Buildings (Ultra Low
panel about asset and operational
Energy Use Building Set)."
ratings. It was the unanimous
Today, with so much talk about
opinion of the panel that a proper
net zero energy buildings, it is
rating system would have both.
important to understand the techThat's good news because we use "We will be successful because our
nology limits of building energy
the exact approach with bEQ.
people, our passion and our perfor- efficiency. For some building
The bad news is that bEQ was
types, such as schools and public
never mentioned. I also recently mance will make ASHRAE better in assembly, it may be possible to
saw a conversation on LinkedIn
achieve net zero with the incluthe future than it is today."
where a poster said he wished the
sion of on-site renewable energy
ASHRAE bEQ program would take off so we could have a
sources in certain climates. For other building types, such
better energy rating program from which to choose.
as supermarkets and hospitals, this goal is not feasible
Obviously, we have a great deal of solid marketing to
with existing technology unless unreasonable quantities
do. Increased exposure of the benefits of the program is
of on-site renewable energy sources are used.
something we really need to work on. We have got to find
With the high cost of these sources and with the site
a way to really get the word out, and quite honestly, it
constraints that often limit their use, the best strategy
can't get bogged down in our typical procedures.
may be to reduce energy use prior to evaluating the
We need to put significant resources behind this as
impact of including on-site renewable energy sources.
soon as possible. Or we risk missing a great opportunity
This project, using building energy simulation modeland losing all of the work of the last few years.
ing, hopes to find the lowest predicted energy consumption for a variety of common building types to serve as
Building Energy Disclosure Standard
low energy targets of what can be achieved now and in
In the area of standards, we are working on a proposed the near future.
standard on energy disclosure, which was authorized at
The impact of first cost of the various technologies is
the 2013 Annual Conference.
not being considered and the resulting ultra low-energy
18

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ASHRAE Journal - August 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - August 2014