Dubai, UAE, 13 February 2019: The world has taken great strides in setting tough energy-efficiency goals and the awareness of climate change has been a strong driver in Europe, Asia and in the United States, said Michael Ivanovich, Senior Director, Global Affairs, AMCA International, while assessing the situation on energy efficiency from a global perspective. “California in particular,” he said, “has taken energy efficiency seriously, yet we have a long way to go.” As a state, he added, California has set very strong energy-efficiency goals and the state recognises that not only is construction important but so is providing energy programmes for retrofits. “California has done a good job at creating a market for voluntary programmes that are financially incentivising,” he said.

Elaborating on the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), Ivanovich said, “The IECC, ASHRAE 90.1 are all energy standards; however, there is a difficulty in adhering to codes as they are complex.” Changing codes and standards, he added, results in thick manuals, which have their own user guides and training courses. The IECC, he said, changes on a three-year basis and even after it changes it takes years for the codes to be adopted and applied in the market. “Some states,” he added, “are presently using the 2009 and the 2012 versions.” Presently, there are a number of versions in existence, and not only are the codes complex but their use necessitates training. In addition, Ivanovich said, code officials are under stress, because the budgets for the cities and municipalities that employ them don’t have the funds and, as a result, they have fewer officials.

Ivanovich said that California understands the value of persistence when working on retrofits. He added, “The concept called deep retrofit is common, where you change the physical equipment from a less to a more efficient one.”