Proposed ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 211P, Standard for Commercial Building Energy Audits, is open for public comment until Sept. 19.
Standard 211P defines the procedures required to perform ASHRAE Level 1, 2, and 3 energy audits, provides a common scope of work for those audit levels for use by building owners and others, and establishes standardized industry practices and minimum reporting requirements for results.
An advisory public review of the standard that concluded in December 2015 resulted in more than 600 comments from some 100 people. Changes made as a result of that review include:
- Expansion of scope to include multifamily residential buildings.
- Modification of requirements for energy-auditor qualifications.
- Addition of specific guidance around the energy-audit quality-control process.
- Improvement of reporting forms for usability.
- Review of reporting formats for compatibility with BuildingSync, the DOE protocol for transmitting energy-audit data with XML files.
- Addition of optional input guidance for compatibility with the DOE’s Asset Score rating approach for existing-building assessments.
- Updated procedures that are more audit-customer-oriented and include measures for reasons beyond energy-savings benefits.
- Refined guidance around Level 3 procedures.
- Addition of guidance for building-energy-model calibration.
For more information and to comment, go to www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.