BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1013 (Quirk) - Energy: public domain computer program: home
energy rating.
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|Version: June 19, 2015 |Policy Vote: E., U., & C. 10 - |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: July 6, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 1013 would require the California Energy Commission
(CEC) to approve and make publicly available a public domain
computer program that reflects adopted or updated building
standards and has been tested and updated to improve accuracy
for use on single-family and multifamiliy residential dwellings.
Fiscal
Impact: Ongoing costs of approximately $1 million for staff and
contracts from the Energy Resources Programs Account (General)
to continuously improve modeling accuracy of the energy
assessment tools for residential dwellings.
Background: Section 25402.1 of the Public Resources Code requires the CEC
to develop a public domain computer program that will enable
contractors, builders, architects, engineering, and government
AB 1013 (Quirk) Page 1 of
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officials to estimate the energy consumed by residential and
nonresidential buildings. This program, known as the Public
Domain Compliance Software, is used to demonstrate compliance
with building energy efficiency standards.
Section 25942 of the Public Resources Code requires the CEC to
adopt criteria for adopting a statewide home energy rating
program for residential dwellings. Home energy rating services
must in compliance with the program criteria. In response to
this requirement, the CEC developed the Home Energy Rating
System (HERS) program. HERS providers use software (often Energy
Pro, which is CEC approved) to estimate the energy savings that
will occur in any given building as a result of efficiency
upgrades.
Proposed Law:
This bill would:
Require the CEC to approve and make publicly available, not
less than six months prior to the effective date of adopted or
updated standards, a version of the public domain computer
program that will function properly with those adopted or
updated standards.
Require the CEC, before approving the public domain computer
program for use with adopted or updated standards, to (1)
perform preliminary tests of the public domain computer
program using common examples of residential and
nonresidential buildings and building systems to ensure the
usability; and to (2) make the results of the preliminary
tests publicly available.
Require the CEC, as part of the home energy rating program,
for existing single-family residential dwellings and
multifamily residential dwellings with up to four units, to
(1) ensure energy assessment tools used by the commission are
routinely adjusted to improve modeling accuracy; and to (2)
ensure that consumers receive a notice with the output of the
energy assessment tools explaining the assumptions used in the
energy assessment tools and how the output may differ from
actual usage patterns.
AB 1013 (Quirk) Page 2 of
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Related
Legislation: AB 2581 (Bradford, 2014) would have made changes
to CEC building energy efficiency standards programs virtually
identical to this bill, as well as changes to CEC's appliance
energy efficiency standards. The bill was vetoed by the
Governor.
Staff
Comments: In regards to the Public Domain Computer Program, the
changes proposed by the bill are consistent with CEC's current
practice and therefore will not result in additional costs.
In regards to the HERS program, this bill would require that
energy assessment tools used by the CEC are routinely adjusted
to improve the tools accuracy in estimating anticipated energy
savings. To make such adjustments, the CEC will need to
regularly obtain energy usage data from single-family and
multi-family buildings that have received an assessment using
the CEC tools in order to compare estimated energy usage with
actual usage. Any differences would result in modifying the
assessment tools. The CEC anticipates needing approximately
$500,000 in contract costs for data collection and analysis
assistance plus approximately $500,000 in additional staff to
continuously improve modeling accuracy.
As noted by the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities, and
Communication, "The author and industry representatives contend
that the accuracy and usefulness of software used by HERS Raters
would be improved by routine adjustments. They further contend
that home owners would be better served if CEC ensured home
owners were informed of the assumptions behind CEC-approved
energy assessment tools and how actual energy usage may vary
from assessment tool estimates. There is no reason to
contradict the proponents - the practices required by the bill
likely would improve the accuracy and usefulness of CEC-approved
software in estimating homeowner energy savings. However, CEC
reports that the modeling adjustments will be complex and
costly. It is not clear the improvements that would result from
routine adjustments to CEC-approved software would merit the
cost of such adjustments."
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