§17084 Separate Spaces with High-performance Energy Efficiency Measures

Summary

The Secretary of Energy, through the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, must finish a study by April 30, 2016. The study will check whether making leased tenant spaces in commercial buildings with high-performance energy efficiency measures can greatly cut energy use and costs, and how to encourage owners and tenants to do that. High-performance energy efficiency measure = a technology, product, or practice that cuts energy use and utility bills. Separate spaces = areas in a commercial building leased or occupied under a written agreement. The study must describe the kinds of measures to use during design and construction, repeatable design and construction steps, policies and best practices to cut energy for lighting, plugs, heating/cooling, cooking, laundry, and other systems, return-on-investment and payback analyses (including incentives), energy models and simulations comparing spaces with and without the measures, ways to measure and verify actual savings, how tenant spaces and central building systems can work together, and any job impacts. It must include case studies. Within 90 days after April 30, 2015, the Secretary must ask for public comments in the Federal Register, and the final study must be posted on the Department of Energy website.