A proposal that would set lighting requirements for high-rise dwellings in the energy standard published by ASHRAE and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) is open for industry comment.

Fourteen addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, are open for public comment until April 24, 2016. To comment or learn more, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.

Among them is addendum do. Currently, lighting in dwelling units in high-rise buildings is exempt in both Standard 90.1 and ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.2, Energy Standard for Low-Rise Residential Buildings.

“In general, lighting within someone’s personal dwelling unit (home) has been exempt because it was not considered commercial, which is the focus of 90.1,” said Eric Richman, chair of the standard’s lighting subcommittee. “The International Energy Conservation Code with its residential component and other similar state codes developed some basic requirements for dwelling unit lighting several years ago that addressed product efficacy. At the time, it was difficult to develop requirements that would ensure savings and still be practical for personal spaces. Over time, the lack of dwelling unit requirements in 90.1 presented a potential gap in energy savings. These new requirements would set efficacy minimums and/or controls for the lighting in dwelling unit spaces covered in the standard’s scope, which includes multi-family structures of four stories or above.”

The proposed requirements are similar to those in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program for high-efficacy lighting. They are simplified to apply to dwelling units in commercial buildings and to support compliance as well as being conservative to allow design flexibility. The proposed efficacy requirements will effectively eliminate the use of incandescent/halogen sources as well as less efficacious products in the compact fluorescent (CFL) and light emitting diodes (LED) categories.

Also among the addenda open for public comment is addendum ei, which tightens requirements to ensure that non-historic elements or areas of buildings meet the applicable requirements. Currently, the historic building exemption can allow for exempting the entire building, including parts that may be new additions or not part of the historic element, according to Richman.

Other addenda open for public comment until April 24, 2016, are:

• Addendum bd requires monitoring chiller plant efficiency in large electric motor driven chilled water plants for plants with a peak chilled water output based upon equipment type and climate zone. The change is designed to help commissioning and ongoing operations of the aforementioned chilled water plants.

• Addendum dw adds efficiencies for hydraulic elevator motors. The efficiency for the motors used in hydraulic elevators is substantially different than the motor efficiencies used for traction elevators. In addition the hydraulic elevator motors are usually not a type covered by the standard.

• Addendum dz provides clarifications only to changes made as a result of addendum cp. This addendum does not change the criteria of the standard. The base assembly for metal building walls is clarified and reference to all insulation methods is recognized in Section A3.2 rather than indicating one insulation methodology as the “base assembly,” which is not intended.

• Addendum ea addresses minor inconsistencies in terminology in sections 5 thru 11 that have developed over time.

• Addendum eb addresses minor inconsistencies in terminology in Appendices C and G that have developed over time.

• Addendum ec. When preparing documentation to explain the derivation of each number in Table 4.2.1.1 (Building Performance Factors), a single number was found to be inconsistent with the derived values. This addendum corrects that inconsistency.

• Addendum ed adds HVAC System Types 11, 12, and 13 to Section G.3.1.3.18 Dehumidification.

• Addendum ef changes Table G3.1.1-2, based on updated 2012 U.S. Department of Energy’s Commercial Building Energy Consumption (CBECS) information for baseline service water heating systems.

• Addendum eg removes a sentence that is no longer necessary since the most common building energy modeling programs are able to simulate integrated water economizers.

• Addendum ej modifies the text to use correct terminology for LED drivers.

• Addendum ek establishes baseline commercial refrigeration limits for Appendix G, which are based on the California Energy Commission Appliance Efficiency Regulations 2005.

• Addendum el adds a mandatory requirement for air-cooled direct expansion cooling units with economizers to have basic fault detection and diagnostic systems and were developed in consultation with unitary system and economizer control manufacturers.