Atlanta, Georgia: ASHRAE has announced that a proposal that would set lighting requirements for high-rise dwellings in the energy standard, which it has published in collaboration with the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), is open for industry comment.

Giving details, ASHRAE said that 14 addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, are open for public comment from March 25 until April 24. Those interested in learning more or submitting their comments, ASHRAE informed, could visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.

Among them is addendum do, said ASHRAE, and explained that 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,” Eric Richman, Chair of the standard’s lighting subcommittee, said. He elaborated: “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 storeys or above.”

According to ASHRAE, the proposed requirements are similar to those in the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR programme for high-efficacy lighting, and are simplified to apply to dwelling units in commercial buildings, and to support compliance, as also being conservative to allow design flexibility.

ASHRAE claimed that 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, ASHRAE said, 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, Richman highlighted.