Energy Budget is the maximum energy consumption that a proposed building, or portion of a building, 

can be designed to consume, calculated using Commission-approved compliance software as specified 

by the Alternative Calculation Method Approval Manual. The Energy Budget for newly constructed 

single-family, multifamily, and nonresidential buildings are expressed in terms of the Long-Term 

System Cost (LSC) and Source Energy. The Energy Budget for additions and alterations for all 

building types are expressed in terms of LSC.

LSC consists of large data sets that convert electricity, gas and propane to LSC energy. The rate 

of conversion varies for each hour of the year, for each climate zone and for each energy type 

(electricity, natural gas and propane). The conversion factors also vary by building type: low-rise 

residential and other building types, including nonresidential, hotel/motel and high-rise 

residential. There are a total of 96 hourly data sets (16 climate zones x 3 fuel types x 2 building 

types) where the 2 building types are residential 30 year and nonresidential 30 year. The complete 

LSC data can be downloaded from the Energy Commission’s website.

Because of the length, the actual data is not published in this appendix.

LSC is also used to evaluate the cost effectiveness of measures and to perform other codes 

analysis.

Source energy is the long run marginal source energy of fossil fuels that are combusted as a result 

of building energy consumed either directly at the building site or caused to be consumed to meet 

the electrical demand of the building considering the long-term marginal hourly resources of 

Commission-projected electric system resource procurement. For a given hour, the value in that hour 

for each forecasted year is averaged to get a lifetime average source energy.

The complete Source Energy data can be downloaded from the Energy Commission’s

website. Because of the length, the actual data is not published in this appendix.

Table 3-1 through Table 3-6 give a statistical summary of the LSC and source energy factors for 

electricity, natural gas and propane. Each table has the annual minimum,

maximum, and average for each climate zone and building type.

(a) Table 3-1 – LSC Statistical Data – Electricity ($/kWh)

(b) Table 3-2 – LSC Statistical Data – Natural Gas ($/Therm)

(c) Table 3-3 – LSC Statistical Data – Propane ($/Therm)

(d) Table 3-4 – Source Energy Statistical Data – Electricity (kBtu/KWh)

(e) Table 3-5 – Source Energy Statistical Data – Natural Gas

(f) Table 3-6 – Source Energy Statistical Data – Propane

Table 3-2 – LSC Statistical Data – Natural Gas ($/therm)

.

Table 3-3 – LSC Statistical Data – Propane ($/therm)

Table 3-4 – Source Energy Statistical Data – Electricity (kBtu/kWh)

Table 3-5 – Source Energy Statistical Data – Natural Gas (kBtu/Therm)

Table 3-6 – Source Energy Statistical Data – Propane (kBtu/Therm)