required to have a manual control “shall also allow the occupant to reduce the connected lighting load in a reasonably uniform illumination pattern by at least 50 percent.”
Methods specified include controlling all lamps or luminaires; dual switching of alternate rows of luminaires, alternate luminaires or alternate lamps; switching the middle lamp luminaires independently of the outer lamps; or switching each luminaire or each lamp.
Requirements also cover time clock controls, occupancy sensors or automatic daylight controls, photosensors or astronomical time switches on outdoor lighting, limitations on the energy consumption of exit signs and requirements that buildings with multiple dwelling units have separate meters for each unit.
Most of these requirements have some exceptions, and there are some very specific limitations on certain parameters, such as the lighting power allowed for various applications. For example, the lobby of a motion picture theater is allowed 1W of lighting per square foot while a performing arts theater lobby is allowed more than three times that power (3.3 W/ft2), and the lobby of a religious building is limited to 0.6 W/ft2. Any distributor or rep selling into a market that adopts the IECC should dig into section 505 of the code and learn all its electrical requirements.
For cities and states that want to be closer to the leading edge of green building, the ICC introduced public version 2.0 of its International Green Construction Code (IGCC) at the USGBC's Greenbuild conference in Chicago last month.
IGCC is a model code promoting construction practices that maximize efficiency and minimize environmental impact, given existing technologies and practices. It seeks to set a standard for what can be considered a “high-performance green building.” This is a much more aggressive code than the IECC, as the new requirements of the 2012 IECC form the baseline standard for development of the IGCC.
The IGCC includes requirements for a much broader scope of parameters, including site selection and development, materials used (including techniques such as plastered straw bales, which have special wiring requirements), atmospheric quality, water conservation and renewable energy systems.
Among the electrical system components, the IGCC specifies limits on the amount of mercury that can be contained in fluorescent tubes. It includes specific metering requirements to allow building owners or managers to isolate and measure, report or display energy usage according to load type — be it HVAC, lighting, building operation, plug loads or process loads — as well as automated demand response capabilities. It also includes requirements for transformer efficiency, and minimum performance parameters for a variety of appliances and equipment.
At the time of last month's Greenbuild conference, only Richland, Wash., had already voted to adopt the IGCC as a building code, but ICC officials said many other jurisdictions were actively considering adoption. The final 2012 IGCC is scheduled for release in March 2012, after additional rounds of comments and proposed changes.
At the further reaches of building efficiency, the folks out in California are pushing for buildings that consume no energy. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in September introduced an action plan designed to help commercial building owners take advantage of the latest technologies and financial incentives to reduce energy use to ‘net-zero.’
The Zero Net Energy Action Plan identifies specific actions and timelines to achieve time-specific milestones in California's Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan. The plan aims to transform the state's commercial buildings into clean energy powered, energy-efficient structures by 2030, said CPUC Commissioner Dian Grueneich.
Zero net energy (ZNE) buildings have a net energy consumption of zero over a typical year. On-site solar, wind and other renewable energy resources generate the amount of energy used by the building. To date, California has more ZNE buildings than any other state in the nation. Te