In 2013, the most significant change is that all certified residential compliance software programs will use the same modeling and rules processing “Compliance Manager” software within their compliance programs. Compliance software vendors are no longer allowed to separately implement the ACM rules or use the energy modeling algorithms of their choice. This new Compliance Manager includes many advanced modeling capabilities including the modeling of solar gains, thermal mass and airflows.
As part of the new operation of the compliance software, the programs will access electronic versions of the compliance forms from an Energy Commission web server. Energy analysts using the software will need to have internet access to generate the final CF-1R reports for submittal to building departments.