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Local Law 87: Energy Consumption Audits for Property Owners

Author: Sam Ellis
by Sam Ellis
Posted: Nov 19, 2014

Owners of property have a mandate to conserve energy in their homes and offices. According to Local Law 87, the government has taken the mandate to inform building owners about energy consumption so that energy is conserved. When energy is conserved, it contributes to less operation costs. This is done through energy audits.

Energy audits are done through surveys and retro commissioning. The latter takes into account the equipment used during installation and ensures that they perform efficiently. Local law 87 NYC is therefore all about giving building owners a better understanding of the performance of these buildings so that efficiency is increased.

For this process to be successful, the following is done:

  • The building is reviewed based on its size and the year that the energy audits will be released.
  • Energy audits and retro-commissioning is conducted. This is done through completion of an Energy Efficiency Report, EER.
  • The building owner then submits the EER only once every decade

LL87: The List of Buildings Covered

Energy conservation measures are important in ensuring efficiency in buildings. The buildings that need to comply with this law include those that are more than fifty thousand square feet. For buildings that are on a single lot, the size is more than a hundred thousand square feet. Here is the list of the buildings covered:

  • Buildings that participate in the NYC housing preservation and development program.
  • Buildings managed by the hospital corporation
  • Senior colleges in New York
  • Cultural institutions that are under the cultural institutional group

The city’s Department of Finance offers estimates for the size of buildings that are covered under this law. Building owners will use the Gross square footage to calculate the size of their buildings. The tax block number assists building owners to determine the time that they would submit the EER report. For instance, if the tax block number is 00015, the document is filed on or before December 2015. Building owners also receive a letter of notification from the Greener Greater Building Plan (GGBP).

Completion of the EER Report

The Energy audit is an analysis of a building’s energy efficiency and energy needs. To comply with this law, the owners of buildings are required to submit an energy efficiency report, EER. This is done electronically. The EER report will include information concerning the building certification and inventory of the equipment used inside the building. There is also information concerning measures that should be taken for energy conservation. The Department of Buildings in New York assists building owners with information on how to file the report.

Energy audits are assessed by looking at the base building systems. They include the heating ventilations, the building envelope, air conditioning systems, hot water systems, lighting and electrical systems. The EER consists of professional certification form and retro commissioning and energy audit data collection tools. This information is available on excel spreadsheet. The data collection tools include an introduction to filling the form, submission of the form, information of the building and retro commissioning measures. Retro commissioning is all about identifying how a building performs and ensures that systems and operations are running smoothly. This improves performance.

The energy consumption audits should be done by qualified retro commission agents. These are registered architects with the New York state.

Importance of energy audits

  • They assist in determining the energy used in every building
  • They reduce wastage of energy and thus promote energy saving measures.
  • Reduction in cost of operation of the building
The process of LL87 is therefore all about buildings complying with this law. Energy audits and retro commissioning is done on these buildings and submitted electronically after every decade. Read More
About the Author

On the other hand, from the environmental point of view we cannot forget that energy efficiency is the most simple and economical way and Energy efficiency firms nyc helps to achieve.

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Author: Sam Ellis

Sam Ellis

Member since: Aug 13, 2014
Published articles: 10

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