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