13 minute read
By Carol Jones, DALI Alliance®, NA Market Development Manager
If you aren’t familiar with Building Performance Standards (BPS), you are not alone. The words by themselves are generic and can easily be misconstrued. Without specifics or context, lighting professionals might assume that BPS refers to high performance building energy standards.
But no, building performance standards are nothing like energy codes. A highly visible BPS example is New York City’s Local Law 97. The legislation requires buildings to reduce their emissions to meet targets that increase in stringency every five years. Importantly, LL 97 has teeth. Fines will be assessed for buildings that don’t meet the targets. When LL 97 was enacted in 2019, I knew it was a gamechanger for NYC. What I didn’t realize is that it signaled the beginning of a significant trend across the country. Building performance standards have become a ‘thing.’ To say that they have picked up steam is putting it mildly.
The Institute for Market Transformation— which is the center of gravity for all things BPS—tells us that building performance standards are “…designed to reduce carbon emissions in buildings by improving energy, gas and water use, and peak demand. These standards become stricter over time, driving continuous, long-term improvement in the building stock, and complementing building energy codes.”
BPS are designed to have phases and milestones over multiple years with planning at the front end of the process. While there are many commonalities from one BPS to the next, there are also distinctions between policies. Stakeholders engaged in the process will have significant influence on the nuances of content and methods. Each locality will determine benchmarking, milestones, performance thresholds, metrics and life cycle analysis methods, penalties for noncompliance, and more. Once adoption happens, building owners are required to comply with the performance thresholds by specified dates. At the building level, metrics will typically include energy use intensity (EUI) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Carrot or Stick?
As an industry, we aren’t used to this flavor of legislation or the way it influences the market. I remember (yes, back in the day…) the dynamics and culture of energy code development. For almost 10 years, I participated in the ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 Lighting Subcommittee meetings. Ah, the personas…the historical paradigm where government drove the process, manufacturers resisted, green groups advocated, and specifiers were caught in the middle.
Over time, the dynamics of the energy codes and standards development process has improved to where there is a greater level of agreement, a sense of purpose, and disagreements are more technical and less political. All well and good, but once codes are adopted and promulgated into state or local codes, compliance is required. For those who are engaged in lighting projects, at that point, code compliance is non-negotiable. It’s a stick, not a carrot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing energy codes. They have a vital and effective influence on the environment as well as technological innovation. My point is that energy codes are not optional, and in many ways, they are functionally prescriptive in spite of the performance language.
In contrast to energy codes, Building Performance Standards are truly performance based. They are technology agnostic. So, why is that different for the lighting industry, and controls manufacturers in particular? Answer: We are free to ignore the opportunity. In this paradigm, there is nothing and no one to resist. BPS legislation and policies set targets but do not prescribe how to reach them. Success is measured by a high-level metric and does not dictate specific types of building systems or technology thresholds. It’s a carrot, not a stick.
We have always relied on energy codes to drive lighting controls adoption into new construction, but building performance standards have now put a framework in place to raise the bar in existing buildings. There will always be another target down the road, and the sooner we get in front of these trends, the sooner we can reap the benefits.
By Harold Jepsen, P.E. WELL-AP, VP Standards & Industry, Legrand
Opportunity Size
Now that we’ve laid the groundwork and clarified the distinctions between the carrot and the stick, let’s consider the carrot on its merits. Just how big is the opportunity afforded by BPS?
According to the EIA CBECS (Commercial Building Energy Conservation Survey2), there are 54 billion square feet of existing buildings that haven’t been retrofit with LEDs, never mind lighting controls. That doesn’t include retrofits that were done in 2016-17 before we saw significant increases in efficacy. Only 2% of that massive market would equal the size of the total annual new construction market.
Traditionally, the home for innovation is within new construction projects. Budgets aren’t subject to payback metrics, expectations are higher, and projects with lighting specifiers and AEC firms have the competency and experience to learn about new technologies.
ESCOs own the retrofit market for good reason, and they have it down to a science. Some of the more progressive ESCOs have tried advanced controls, and it hasn't gone well. Feedback from owners, managers, and ESCOs is consistent: the confusion related to the multiple proprietary lighting control systems has been a major frustration. Maintenance issues are especially frustrating; the vendor lock that comes with proprietary systems makes matters worse.
Even as I highlight the massive opportunity afforded by BPS and decarbonization in general, I’m not naive about the barriers to change. Going after the existing buildings market to increase the uptake of controls is no small feat. We need to decide if we want to go after it—or resign ourselves to the status quo. Of course, any new and substantial opportunity would be challenging; it would take a lot of commitment, an open mind, and meaningful changes to our products, pricing, channels, and service offerings. The reward has a huge upside. We can take inspiration from Albert Einstein: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
So What’s Changed?
The reason to believe in this opportunity is not because of the opportunity size. There are legitimate market drivers that stand to make a difference in standard practice. BPS are contributing in multiple ways. The most obvious difference is that owners and managers who would not otherwise invest in their buildings will need to comply with the overarching goals in the states and localities. This will result in an overall increase in projects. In addition to the expansion of the market, there are factors that are more structural.
Metrics for decarbonization. Lighting projects in existing buildings have been limited to 2-3 year paybacks for decades. Standard practice has been limited to reduced wattage over duration of the energy services contract. When or if controls have been installed, the standard is 0-10V analog drivers and room area controls.
Now that projects will be driven by a higher-level goal of reduced emissions, there are additional metrics that will come into play. Projects geared towards decarbonization and emissions reduction will use Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) as a primary decision tool. In fact, different methods of LCA are currently a hot topic in the world of BPS and decarbonization. Return on investment will be viewed at the building level along with things like GHG emissions and source energy, rather than the lighting payback by itself, so factors such as installation and maintenance savings will be more relevant.
Increased stringency over time. BPS typically have several thresholds of compliance over many years. How do you get to the next level of savings with lighting? Sure, you can monitor energy at the circuit level, but circuits provide power for different fixture types, across different space types, which have different lighting needs.
Michael Myer, senior researcher at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, explains the situation well, saying, "One thing that BPS have in common is that compliance targets will change over time. For lighting, if you choose analog controls, how do you know where your energy is going, or how to enable more savings in the future? Digital systems, with addressable components and monitoring, enable buildings to determine energy use at a granular level and make informed decisions about the next level of savings."
Building Energy Codes and Standards. BPS, are not happening in a vacuum. We are seeing changes along the same trend lines within the latest versions of ANSI/ASHRAE/ IES Standard 90.1-2022 and IECC 2021. Both standards are now requiring energy credits in addition to existing prescriptive baselines. For example, IECC 2021 paragraph C406.4 specifies how credits can be earned by using enhanced digital lighting controls. Digital addressability to individual luminaires is one of the credit options, which in turn enables load shedding and digital reconfiguration of controls. Codes are finally pulling digital lighting technology into existing buildings.
Why Digital?
Here is the North American dialogue: “Digital is the future.” “Well of course, but…in North America we use 0-10V drivers because it’s the devil we know. It’s easier and cheaper, and nothing will ever change that. It is what it is. ”
What I find fascinating is that it’s the devil we don’t know. It’s not actually easier, it’s just familiar. 0-10V may be a lower first cost, but DALI drivers are faster to install. In buildings larger than 50K sq.ft., the reduced labor hours for installation and startup will almost always make up for equipment costs, and then some.
One of the things I find most surprising is that the ugly truth about 0-10V drivers is one of the best kept secrets in the industry. We hear about the difference between linear and logarithmic curves, and that the energy savings numbers aren’t as accurate as digital real-time monitoring, but it doesn’t seem like a big deal. Without going down the rabbit hole, allow me to burst your bubble quickly. Energy savings estimates based on calculated savings with 0-10V drivers are wildly inaccurate. The latest research makes this painfully clear.3 If you want to know how much energy you are saving, digital monitoring is a must.
Why DALI-2™ and D4i™?
Energy savings matter within the context of BPS, but it’s not the only important factor. BPS is a long-term play; when you are investing heavily into a long-term asset, the risk of ongoing maintenance problems is not to be taken lightly, and proprietary components are considered high risk. Products need to be trustworthy and replaceable. DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) is the internationally standardized protocol for digital communication between lighting control devices. DALI-2™ is a certification program that tests products against the relevant specifications to ensure interoperability.
In addition to accurate savings data and interoperability, consider the following list:
• Churn and space re-use are a given, especially considering the contraction of today’s commercial buildings market. Digital re-configuration solves that problem without paying fees for on-site services.
• Fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) helps to find problems and fix them quickly, saving the cost of a diagnostic visit and subsequent repair.
• D4i™ is an extension of the DALI-2™ certification program developed for wireless systems and is a great fit for existing buildings. The DALI Alliance developed gateway specifications to interface between D4i™-certified drivers and sensors, and Bluetooth NLC and Zigbee wireless protocols.
• DALI Alliance worked with the Zhaga Consortium to support the development of their specification to standardize form factors and connectors for Luminaire Level Lighting Control devices for interior (Book 20) and exterior (Book 18). The resulting modularity will enable sensor and wireless controller replacements when the time comes.
• DALI DT8 (device type 8) control gear enables methods that can be used to control the color output of light sources. Digital calibration ensures consistent color from one light source to the next, and supports tunable white, RGB, and XY coordinates.
• DALI-2™-emergency-certified products facilitate integrated, digital control systems that combine illumination and emergency lighting. Building management systems can access DALI control and querying capabilities including automated testing and reporting.
How Do We Pivot?
Clearly, lighting controls won't make sense in every existing building project. And any major market transformation takes many years. In the meantime, how do we get traction? Be strategic. Pursue projects that meet criteria. Early adoption will happen on projects that have multiple ways to benefit. Search out the localities that have BPS in place as they will have the legislative and policy pressure to meet their compliance goals. High energy costs are always a plus because the economics are better. Lighting rebates from utilities have been decreasing for some time, but the programs remaining are often focused on controls. Long-term assets and operating contracts have more room for investments to pay back. They are also more sensitive to risk and maintenance and more likely to value fault diagnostics and remote configuration. Building size is another thing to look for. Projects larger than 50K sq.ft. typically benefit more from networked lighting control systems.
Conclusion
There is no way to know how quickly the growth of building performance standards will happen, but we do know the trend will continue.
Alex Dews, CEO at the Institute for Market Transformation, tells us that “there is a sense of inevitability in the market that this is coming. The 40+ jurisdictions4 committed to developing these policies represent roughly 25% of the commercial market. The benchmarking inventories from local governments show that there are still enormous efficiency opportunities in the built environment, which is typically responsible for 60-80% of their carbon emissions. They just can't meet their goals without focusing on existing buildings, and BPS create a clear pathway and timeline for making these changes happen.”
If you want to go after the opportunity like I do, I only ask one thing—remember that we are in this together as an industry. Specifically, we must support interoperability and digital systems. DALI-2™, D4i™, and other standardized wireless options will support the BPS as well as the requirements of the end customers. In many ways, the trend towards BPS could give us a ‘do-over.’ This time, let’s make sure we don’t settle for wattage reduction alone. Standardized digitally addressable systems in new construction is inevitable. When it comes to existing buildings we have a choice: carrot or stick?
1. Institute for Market Transformation.
2. U.S. Energy Information Agency, Commercial Building Energy Conservation Survey. Building Characteristics Highlights, CBECS Flipbook.
3. “The Energy and Operational Impacts of Using 0-10V Control for LED Streetlights.” A. Waghale, M. Poplawski, S. Pratoomratana, J. Tuenge, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Produced for the USDOE, EERE.
4. Institute for Market Transformation. Maps and Comparisons: Building Performance Policies at a Glance.
