Between 1978 and 2008 the Northwest saved nearly 4,000 aMW of energy through energy efficiency, the equivalent of powering nearly four cities the size of Seattle annually. Over a third of those savings resulted from increases in building energy codes and state and federal product standards, demonstrating the important role that more stringent codes and standards play in the Northwest meeting its growing energy needs.
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Building Energy Codes |
NEEA’s work in building energy codes is part of a comprehensive market strategy, whereby building code requirements are based on measures that have become common practice through the region’s voluntary energy efficiency initiatives like NEEA’s Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes initiative. Once the market is in a position to embrace more stringent codes, NEEA advocates for more stringent codes in state and federal code adoption processes and also provides education and training to market to help increase compliance with new and existing codes. This comprehensive market strategy has helped lead to numerous building energy code increases throughout Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington over the past decade. Click here to read more about the region’s success in advancing residential building energy codes.
Key Barriers:
- Some builders are resistant to code changes.
- The code change process can be arduous and complicated.
- Energy codes can be complex and difficult to understand.
Key Strategies:
- Support code development and adoption.
- Improve compliance through education, training, technical and administrative support.
- Help set regional and national standards through code forums.
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Appliance and Equipment Standards |
NEEA and its utility partners leverage the market power of the Northwest’s 12 million energy consumers to accelerate the market adoption of more stringent appliance and equipment standards at a regional and national level. NEEA does this by collaborating with its regional partners to develop strategies for advancing higher standards for appliances and equipment. These strategies rely upon NEEA’s ability to leverage the market power of the Northwest to influence national processes and many times includes collecting and submitting technical data and recommendations on behalf of the Northwest to the U.S. Department of Energy throughout the various stages of a standard’s adoption process.
Key Barriers:
- Manufacturers are resistant to standard changes.
- There is a lack of knowledge about the costs and benefits of increased appliance and equipment standards.
- There is a lack of market data available for the U.S. DOE to use in its standards development process.
Key Strategies:
- Participate in U.S. DOE rulemakings.
- Partner with national and regional advocates.
- Align emerging technology initiatives with standards, where possible.
- Conduct research to supply critical market data to U.S. Department of Energy.
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