Taming the “Wild West” of Energy Audits: the Sequel

I’m very happy to announce that we’ve made another big step forward towards our goal – an enforceable standard for energy audits. Back in December I wrote about the first version of the ASHRAE’s Standard 211P, and my vision for how this could help create order to an industry resembling the Wild West. Now we’re going out for publication review – meaning we’re getting close to a final published version. If you care about how energy audits are done, now is the time to provide your feedback. You can only download the standard, and provide comments during the 45-day review period.

Our committee members worked hard on this this updated version. In the Advisory Public we received over 600 comments from nearly 100 independent reviewers – all of which were considered in our updates. Those suggestions led to many important revisions including:

  • Expanded scope to include multi-family residential buildings.
  • Updated requirements for energy auditor qualifications.
  • Added guidance specifying the energy audit quality control process, which may not sound “sexy” to the rest of the world but is very important to our industry where quality can vary dramatically.
  • Revised reporting formats for compatibility with BuildingSync, the DOE protocol for transmitting energy audit data with XML files.
  • Added optional guidance for compatibility with the DOE’s Asset Score rating approach for existing building assessments.
  • Updated to be more customer focused.
  • Added guidance for Building Energy Model Calibration.
  • Many edits based on reviewer comments to make the standard more usable, clear and effective.

So check it out – we’d love your input. Help us reach our goal of taming the “wild west” of energy audits.

 

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