Energy efficiency reduces energy costs, increases reliability and availability of electricity, improves building occupant comfort, and reduces impacts to the environment making the Energy Standards important and necessary for California’s energy future.
Reducing energy use benefits everyone. Homeowners save money, Californians have a more secure and healthy economy, the environment is less negatively impacted, and the state electrical system can operate in a more stable manner. The 2019 Energy Standards (for residential and nonresidential buildings) are expected to reduce the growth in electricity use and reduce the growth in natural gas use.
Buildings are one of the major contributors to electricity demand. During the 2000-2001 California electricity crisis and the East Coast blackout in the summer of 2003, Energy Commission staff learned that the electric distribution network is fragile and system overloads caused by excessive demand from buildings can create unstable conditions. Furthermore, resulting blackouts can seriously disrupt business and cost the economy billions of dollars.
Since the California electricity crisis, the Energy Commission has placed increasing emphasis on demand reduction.
Comfort is an important benefit of energy-efficient homes. Energy-efficient houses are well insulated, are less drafty, and use high-performance windows and/or shading to reduce solar gains and heat loss. Poorly designed building envelopes result in houses that are less comfortable. Even with oversized heating and cooling systems, comfort cannot be achieved in older, poorly insulated and leaky homes.
For the homeowner, energy efficiency helps to ensure that a home is affordable now and into the future. Banks and other financial institutions recognize the effect of energy efficiency through energy efficient mortgages; they look at the total cost of owning the home, including paying the utility bills. If the utility bills are lower, lenders can qualify borrowers for a larger loan.
From a larger perspective, the less California depends on depletable fossil resources such as natural gas, coal, and oil, the stronger and more stable the economy will remain in the face of energy cost increases. A cost-effective investment in energy efficiency helps everyone. In many ways, it is far more cost effective for the people of California to invest in saving energy than it is to invest in building new power plants.
In many parts of the world, energy use has led to oil spills, acid rain, smog, and other forms of environmental pollution that have ruined the natural beauty people seek to enjoy. California is not immune to these problems, but appliance standards, building standards, and utility programs that promote efficiency and conservation help maintain environmental quality. Other benefits include reduced destruction of natural habitats, which helps protect animals, plants, and natural systems.
Burning fossil fuels contributes greatly to global warming; carbon dioxide is being added to an atmosphere already containing 35 percent more than it did two centuries ago. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases create an insulating layer around the Earth that leads to global climate change. Energy Commission research shows that most sectors of the state economy face significant risk from climate change, including water resources (from reduced snowpack), agriculture, forests, and the natural habitats of several indigenous plants and animals.
Scientists recommend that actions be taken to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. While adding scrubbers to power plants and catalytic converters to cars reduces other emissions, they do not limit the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Using energy efficiently is a far-reaching strategy that can make an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gases.
The National Academy of Sciences has urged the United States to follow California's lead on such efforts, saying that conservation and efficiency should be the chief element in energy and global warming policy. Its first efficiency recommendation was simple: Adopt nationwide energy-efficient building codes. Energy conservation will not only increase comfort levels and save homeowners money, it will play a vital role in creating and maintaining a healthy environment.
The Energy Standards are expected to have a significant impact on reducing greenhouse gas and other air emissions. Carbon dioxide (CO2) one of the more prevalent greenhouse gases, would be reduced.
Section 25402 of the Public Resources Code
Section 25402 of the California Public Resources Code (the code) authorizes the Energy Commission to develop and maintain Energy Standards for new buildings. This section of the code, commonly referred to as the Warren-Alquist Act (the act), is direction from the Legislature on the development of Energy Standards in California.
The act created the Energy Commission in 1974 and gave it authority to develop and maintain building energy efficiency standards for new buildings. The act directs the Energy Commission to “prescribe, by regulation, lighting, insulation, climate control system, and other building design and construction standards which increase the efficiency in the use of energy for new residential and new nonresidential buildings.”
The act also requires that the Energy Standards be cost-effective “when taken in their entirety and amortized over the economic life of the structure,” and it requires that the Energy Commission periodically update the standards and develop manuals to support them. The act directs local building permit jurisdictions to withhold permits until the building satisfies the Energy Standards.
The Public Resources Code amended through Senate Bill 5X (Sher, Chapter 7, Statutes of 2001). expands the authority of the Energy Commission to develop and maintain standards for outdoor lighting and signs.