More stringent energy codes and product standards represent significant long-term energy savings potential for the Northwest. Between 1978 and 2008 the region achieved a total of nearly 4,000 aMW in energy savings, with over a third of those savings resulting from increases in building energy codes and state and federal product standards.
Raising the bar for energy codes in new buildings ensures that they will use significantly less energy over their lifetimes than older construction. Despite the energy savings potential, one of the biggest barriers to adopting better codes is the concern that it will drive up construction costs or even damage the real estate market.
NEEA and the region’s utilities mitigate these concerns by preparing the market for these changes through NEEA's many voluntary market-based initiatives like Northwest ENERGY STAR® Homes. These voluntary initiatives, which are developed with the partnership and support of Northwest utilities, build the market's capacity to apply more energy-efficient construction techniques. NEEA can then effectively demonstrate the market's "readiness" for an upgraded code while showing that these codes won’t negatively impact the market or raise construction costs. NEEA also provides ongoing training and support to help ensure compliance once the code is adopted.
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When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the national ENERGY STAR Homes program, residential building codes in Oregon and Washington already exceeded the standards for national certification. While successful in other parts of the country, the national program for ENERGY STAR homes was not a good fit for the Northwest. |
NEEA, with support from its utility partners, led negotiations with the EPA in 2003 to establish the Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes specification, which requires ENERGY STAR homes built in the region to exceed state building codes for energy efficiency by at least 15 percent.
NEEA officially launched the Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes program in May 2004, and by the end of 2007 nearly 600 builders signed on to the new program. In addition, NEEA has helped educate and train professionals across the region to test and verify the energy performance of homes. All these efforts have continued to build regional momentum for Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes.
In 2009, at the request of Governor Kulongoski, the Oregon state senate passed a bill to reduce building energy consumption by 15 percent. The Oregon Department of Energy prepared a residential code change proposal that was based directly on the successful Northwest ENERGY STAR Home specification.
A 15 percent code increase is perceived as large — and therefore politically explosive — but the existence of hundreds of ENERGY STAR homes built by major Oregon builders made it difficult to argue that the requirements for such houses were beyond the capabilities of the Northwest market.
The effectiveness of the Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes initiative played another important role in the successful adoption of the 2009 Washington State Residential Energy Code, which then helped support important changes to the 2009 National Model Energy Code, which is adopted by 35 states including Idaho and Montana.
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REGIONAL ADVANTAGE
Because NEEA leverages the market power of 12 million energy consumers, we were able to work with the EPA to develop a higher regional specification for Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes.
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ACCELERATING
MARKET ADOPTION
NEEA worked with builders and energy efficiency professionals to increase voluntary adoption of the Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes standard. Improved codes in all four states ensure that all new homes will now meet this higher standard.
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FILLING THE PIPELINE
NEEA continues to support the next generation of improved codes.
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