NIST Releases New Guide Estimating State-by-State Energy Savings from Updated Building Codes

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC)'s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) government member, recently announced the release of an online guide providing state-by-state reports estimating the cost and energy savings associated with potential updates to commercial building energy codes.

The guide, "Benefits and Costs of Energy Standard Adoption in New Commercial Buildings: State-by-State Summaries," provides calculations of estimated energy use and cost savings, reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to lower energy use, and savings on life-cycle costs for each state in connection with the adoption of up-to-date building codes over a 10-year period. It also includes state-by-state recommendations covering how to maximize potential efficiency-related gains when updating each state's building codes.

The guide makes use of a new NIST database and related software allowing for the effective simulation and analysis of energy efficiency measurements for buildings. This tool, known as Building Industry Reporting and Design for Sustainability (BIRDS), is expected to be publicly released as a free online resource in the coming months. For the report, Dr. Joshua Kneifel, an economist in the Office of Applied Economics of NIST's Engineering Laboratory, used BIRDS to carry out an analysis of more than 12,500 building simulations in 228 U.S. cities.

The contents of this new guide are expected to be of interest to government, nonprofit, and industry groups focused on energy efficiency in the built environment, among other stakeholders.

The full guide is available online.