BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1013
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Date of Hearing: April 20, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Anthony Rendon, Chair
AB 1013
(Quirk) - As Introduced February 26, 2015
SUBJECT: Energy: public domain computer program: home energy
rating
SUMMARY: This bill would make various changes in statutes
related to the California Energy Commission's (CEC) building
standards. Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes various changes to building standard statutes, including
provisions that:
a) Requires the CEC, before approving the public domain
computer program that estimates energy consumption, to
perform preliminary tests of the software using examples of
common residential and non-residential building, and to
make the results of the tests publicly available.
b) Requires the CEC to ensure its computer program that
estimates energy consumption is available at least six
months before the effective date of adopted or updated
standards.
c) Requires the CEC to routinely adjust the software to
improve modeling accuracy for use within single-family
residential dwellings and multi-family residential
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dwellings with up to four units.
d) Requires end-users of the public domain computer program
to provide consumers, along with the output of the energy
assessment tool, with a notice explaining how assumptions
used by the computer program may be different than actual
energy use.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the CEC to continuously carry out studies, technical
assessments, research projects, and data collection directed
to reducing wasteful, inefficient, unnecessary, or uneconomic
uses of energy, including improved appliance efficiency.
(Public Resources Code §25401)
2)Requires the CEC to adopt cost-effective energy and water
efficiency standards for appliances. (Public Resources Code
§25402)
3)Requires the CEC to develop a public domain computer program
to estimate energy consumed by residential and nonresidential
buildings. (Public Resources Code §25402.1 (a)(1))
4)Requires the CEC to certify compliance options for new
products, materials, and calculation methods in order to meet
the energy efficiency standards. (Public Resources Code
§25402.1 (a)(2))
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.
COMMENTS:
1)Author's Statement: "Energy efficiency is the top priority in
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California's policies to achieve energy savings and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. There are numerous programs ? that
offer consumers incentives or rebates to purchase energy
efficiency appliances and construct or install energy
efficient devices or technologies in residential and
commercial buildings. Before participating in these programs,
customers may undergo an energy assessment to examine energy
saving opportunities in their particular building. However,
the software tools approved by the CEC that are used to
estimate energy usage are not sufficiently accurate and
consistently overestimate energy usage. Generally, it has
been observed that software-based energy analyze of
inefficient existing homes tends to over predict pre-retrofit
energy use and retrofit energy savings. It is important that
these simulation results be calibrated to actual energy usage
to help customers understand how their investment will likely
affect their energy use if their occupant behavior remains the
same after energy efficiency improvements are installed."
2)Background: The California Global Warming Solutions Act of
2006, enacted by AB 32 (Nunez) Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006,
tasked the Air Resources Board to adopt rules and regulations
that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state to
1990 levels by 2020. With it, the Legislature acknowledged
the adverse impacts and threat global warming poses to the
economic wellbeing, public health, natural resources, and
environment of California, and took an active step towards
mitigating its effect.
Achieving the goals set out by AB 32 includes finding ways to
promote greater energy efficiency in existing buildings. In
order to reduce energy consumption in buildings, California
developed Title 24 building standards that address the energy
efficiency of new homes and commercial buildings. As new
buildings are built, they are built to standards that reduce
the growth of electricity and gas use by its occupants.
However, there still remain over 8 million homes, accounting
for approximately 75 percent of California's homes and
apartments that were built prior to the establishment of the
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Title 24 building standards. Many of these older homes have
not been upgraded to use less energy, and finding ways to
retrofit these pre-Title 24 buildings to improve their
efficiency serves as a method to achieving continuing
greenhouse gas emission reductions for the state.
Subsequently, the legislature passed AB 758 (Skinner) Chapter
470, Statutes of 2009, required the CEC, in collaboration with
the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and
stakeholders, to develop a comprehensive program to achieve
greater energy savings in the state's existing residential and
nonresidential building stock. The bill sought to develop a
plan for the state and homeowners to retrofit existing
buildings in order to lower utility cost, energy consumption,
and greenhouse gas emissions.
3)Energy Upgrade California: Energy Upgrade California is a
statewide initiative designed to help California meet the
climate action and energy efficiency goals of AB 32 and AB
758. Energy Upgrade California is an alliance of the CPUC,
CEC, utilities, regional energy networks, local governments,
businesses, and nonprofits to offer financial incentives to
homeowners who complete certain energy-saving home
improvements. The program seeks to guide Californians to
conserve energy, reduce demand on the electrical grid, and
make informed energy management choices.
The financial incentives are designed to reward homeowners who
address energy efficiency needs through a comprehensive "whole
house" approach. Depending on their improvement needs and
budget, homeowners can choose between various incentives -
typically upgrades such as air sealing, attic insulation, and
duct sealing must be combined with upgrades to wall, floor,
and duct insulation and/or heating and cooling equipment.
4)Energy Assessments and Ratings: An energy assessment examines
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opportunities in a particular building in order to find
potential energy saving upgrades. Based on standard
assumptions of occupant behavior, ratings are used to compare
the energy efficiency of one building to others. A variety of
software tools are available to perform assessments and
ratings, and some contractors have even created proprietary
in-house tools. These methods involve inputting information
about a building into a building energy simulation program and
running the program to predict energy use. Examples of
modeling software that estimate energy usage include
EnergyPro, Home Energy Saver, and HEED.
Some studies have raised concerns about the accuracy of energy
analysis software. These studies found that software-based
energy analysis of inefficient existing homes tends to over
predict pre-retrofit energy use and retrofit energy savings.
For example, a report prepared for PG&E and Southern
California Edison found that modeling software consistently
overestimated the energy use of each home. Modeled
pre-retrofit annual energy use was compared with actual
billing data for 30 jobs, showing:
a) mean modeled total annual use was 40% greater than
billed use,
b) mean modeled annual kWh use was 56 to 68% greater than
billed use, and
c) mean modeled annual gas use was 39 to 43% greater than
billed use.
The study found that estimates prepared by the EnergyPro and
eQUEST software were significantly different from each other
and overestimated energy use.
Another study by the Earth Advantage Institute and the
Conservation Services Group compared software-based energy use
projections for 192 existing homes to actual energy bills and
calculated the percent errors. SIMPLE had a mean absolute
percent error of 25.1%, compared to HES-Full with 33.4%,
REM/Rate with 43.7%, and HES-Mid with 96.6%. In other words,
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SIMPLE predicted energy use on average within plus or minus
25.1% of actual use.
This bill would require the CEC to perform preliminary tests
of the software using examples of common residential and
non-residential buildings before approving the public domain
computer program, and make those results publically available.
The bill would also require the CEC to make the program
available six months before the effective date of adopted or
updated building standards. Furthermore, this bill would
require the CEC to routinely adjust the software to improve
modeling accuracy and notify consumers about how assumptions
used by the program may be different than actual energy use.
All this serves to ensure that the CECs public domains
computer program is accurate before it is released, and
updated routinely to ensure that consumers are provided the
most accurate data possible.
1)Prior Legislation:
AB 2581 (Bradford) 2014: Makes various changes in statutes
related to the California Energy Commission's adoption and use
of appliance and building standards. Vetoed by the Governor.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
AB 1013
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Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Edmond Cheung / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083