BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1013
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1013 (Quirk)
As Introduced February 26, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Utilities |14-0 |Rendon, Patterson, | |
| | |Achadjian, Bonilla, | |
| | |Burke, Dahle, | |
| | |Eggman, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Cristina Garcia, | |
| | |Hadley, Jones, | |
| | |Quirk, Santiago, | |
| | |Ting, Williams | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, | |
| | |Eggman, Gallagher, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Jones, Quirk, | |
AB 1013
Page 2
| | |Rendon, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Makes 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 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, Increased annual costs of $972, 000 ($472,000 for CEC
to hire staff and $500,000 for increased annual contracts) (Energy
Resources Program Account) to obtain data, develop and maintain
AB 1013
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database systems, and identify the differences between actual
energy usage and tool estimates.
COMMENTS:
1)Author's Statement: "Energy efficiency is the top priority in
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 analysis 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 CEC is required to carry out studies, technical
assessments, research projects, and data collection directed in
order to adopt energy and water efficiency standards for
appliances and buildings to reduce wasteful, inefficient,
unnecessary, or uneconomic uses of energy. Numerous programs
offer consumers incentives or rebates to purchase energy
efficient appliances and construct or install devices in
AB 1013
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residential and commercial buildings. Before participating in
these programs, customers may undergo an energy assessment to
identify energy savings in their buildings. The CEC is also
required to develop a public domain computer program to estimate
energy consumed by residential and nonresidential buildings.
3)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. 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.
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.
This 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.
AB 1013
Page 5
Analysis Prepared by:
Edmond Cheung / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083 FN:
0000616