Buildings still operating under the require- ments of ASHRAE Standard 90.1-1989 consume about 45 percent more energy than those complying with Standard 90.1-2010.
piece of the energy-consumption picture. With more than 81 billion square feet of ex- isting commercial floor space in the U.S. and nearly three-quarters of that space built be- fore 1989, commercial buildings represent an enormous opportunity to reduce energy use through renovations and retrofits. On average, 30 percent of the energy
consumed in commercial buildings is wasted, mostly because of outdated and inefficient systems and equipment and because most have not been subject to the current (if any) energy requirements. Buildings still operating under the require- ments of ASHRAE Standard 90.1-1989 con-
sume about 45 percent more energy than those complying with Standard 90.1-2010. Proper building energy-code application offers one of the most effective ways of reducing this waste. Every year approximately 5 billion
square feet of floor space is renovated in the U.S. By 2035, renovated buildings will make up an estimated 38 percent of all U.S. buildings, and approximately 75 percent will be new (built between now and 2035) or renovated. This is a grand opportunity for energy codes to drastically improve the effi- ciency of buildings and cut into commercial energy waste.
The Opportunity With such opportunity to raise the energy bar for so many buildings, it is important to ensure codes are properly applied and meet their potential. In a 2010 Washington, D.C.-based Alliance to Save Energy analysis, assuming average baseline energy intensity (energy consumption) of existing commer- cial floor space is 143 kBtu of source energy per square foot and the average baseline performance of a major commercial reno- vation is equal to minimum performance under the 2006 IECC, the potential energy savings resulting from the application of the 2012 IECC on existing commercial build- ings is 14 kBtu per renovated square foot. This translates to a 10 percent reduction in energy consumption compared to that of existing commercial floor space with no energy codes applied. Additional studies project that around
27 billion square feet of commercial floor space will be renovated between 2013 and 2030. If all this commercial floor space
Circle No.17 26 RETROFIT // May-June 2013
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