BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1013
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
1013 (Quirk) - As Introduced February 26, 2015
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Policy |Utilities and Commerce |Vote:|14 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
AB 1013
Page 2
This bill expands the California Energy Commission's (CEC)
building standards provisions relating to public domain computer
systems. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires CEC, before approving the public domain computer
program that estimates energy consumption, to perform
preliminary tests of the software and to make the results of
the tests publicly available.
2)Requires CEC to ensure its computer program that estimates
energy consumption is available at least six months before the
effective date of adopted or updated building standards.
3)Requires CEC to routinely adjust the software to improve
modeling accuracy for single-family residential dwellings and
multi-family residential dwellings with up to four units.
4)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.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Increased total annual costs of $972,000 to obtain data, develop
and maintain database systems, and identify the differences
between actual energy usage and tool estimates (Energy Resources
Program Account). This figure includes $472,000 for CEC to hire
staff and $500,000 for increased annual contracts.
COMMENTS:
1)Rationale. CEC is required to continuously carry out studies,
AB 1013
Page 3
technical assessments, research projects, and data collection
directed to reduce wasteful, inefficient, unnecessary, or
uneconomic uses of energy. As part of this requirement, CEC
adopts energy and water efficiency standards for appliances
and buildings. CEC is also required to develop a public
domain computers program to estimate energy consumed by
residential and nonresidential buildings.
Numerous programs offer consumers incentives or rebates to
purchase energy efficient appliances and construct or install
devices in residential and commercial buildings. Before
participating in these programs, customers may undergo an
energy assessment to identify energy savings in their
buildings
However, according to the author, the software tools approved
by CEC used to estimate energy usage are not sufficiently
accurate and consistently overestimate energy usage.
This bill will improve the accuracy and availability of public
domain software programs to assist consumers in identifying
potential energy savings in residential and nonresidential
buildings.
2)Energy Assessments and Ratings. An energy assessment
examines 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. Studies have
AB 1013
Page 4
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.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081