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Energy Technologies Area (ETA) researchers are continually building on the strong scientific foundation we have developed over the past 50 years. We address the world’s most pressing climate challenges by bringing to market energy-efficient innovations across the buildings, transportation, and industrial sectors. ETA is at the forefront of developing better batteries for electric vehicles; improving the country's aging electrical grid and innovating distributed energy and storage solutions; developing grid-interactive, efficient buildings; and providing the most comprehensive market and data analysis worldwide for renewable technologies like wind and solar.
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The Energy Technologies Area (ETA) is unique in translating fundamental scientific discoveries into scalable technology adoption. Our approach combines an understanding of the marketplace and the role of state and federal regulation and policies. ETA's research drives real-world, practical results that affect and improve the everyday lives of Americans and those across the globe. Saving energy and battling the Climate Crisis are key to the foundation of our research, which is driven by technoeconomic analysis and in-lab experimentation and discovery.

Guide Specifications: An Overlooked Avenue for Promoting Building Energy Efficiency

Publication Type

Conference Proceedings

Date Published

01/2000

Authors

Coleman, Philip, Alexander T. Shaw

Abstract

Guide specifications, the templates from which individual building project specifications are based, can be written to require high-efficiency products or systems. This paper documents a few selected instances where federal, state, or commercial guide specifications have incorporated such provisions, resulting in estimated annual savings in 2010 of over $30 million. The argument is made that promoting higher efficiency through guide specifications has several advantages over other avenues, including the improvement of building codes. The paper calls for increased attention to this overlooked opportunity from the energy policy community.

Journal

2000 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Volume

Year of Publication

2000