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Buildings and Appliances

Summary of Buildings and Appliances Task Force Action Plan

The buildings and appliances sectors combined use between 20-40% of total primary energy in Partner countries. For this reason, the Buildings and Appliances Task Force (BATF) has a tremendous opportunity to make a sizeable impact on reducing global energy demand by addressing the energy efficiency of buildings where people work and live along with furthering improvements on key elements of mass-produced energy-consuming equipment used in buildings.

The Buildings and Appliances Task Force is working on more than 40 activities under 11 project areas to reduce overall building energy consumption, including the energy consumed by appliances, equipment, office and consumer electronics, and lighting.

U.S. Task Force Members
Buildings and Appliances Task Force Summary of Action Plan and Projects 10/31/06
Buildings and Appliances Task Force on the APP International Website

Sharing Best Practices

As the information age has proven, collaboration through information-sharing is key to reaching any organization's goals. In this light, the Buildings and Appliances Task Force intends to disseminate information across Partner and non-Partner nations on policy/program successes, energy-efficient technologies, and lessons learned. One such information-sharing project involves training public and private sector building owners/managers how to use low-cost measures to improve energy efficiency of existing buildings in APP Partner countries. To improve the depth and breadth of information-sharing, the Buildings and Appliances Task Force plans to create new or enhance existing international and country-based information networks through which continuing improvements of environmental performance in the buildings and appliances sectors can be distributed.

Transforming Markets To Be Energy Efficient

An important objective outlined by the Buildings and Appliances Task Force is to use their information-sharing efforts as a catalyst to market transformation. Several of the projects endorsed by the Task Force use market-oriented policies and programs, such as voluntary labeling and recognition programs for efficient products, utility rebates and tax incentives to both consumers and manufacturers, and aggregating buyer demand to create a market pull for energy efficient products. By exchanging Partner country experiences with these policies and programs, the Task Force will facilitate changes in their domestic markets to increase the penetration of energy efficient products. Additionally, Partner countries will work together on projects that overcome barriers that inhibit the wider use of energy-efficient technologies and practices.

Facilitating Investment in Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency can often be realized at no net cost (and even with a net economic benefit) to the economy as a whole. Surplus savings from energy efficiency can create financing to support further investments in even lower emission supply technologies. This is achievable where energy efficiency measures address market barriers to efficient energy management, common in sectors where energy use is a relatively small part of the expenditure and the impetus for action is limited.

Summary of U.S. Led Buildings and Appliances Projects

High Performance Commercial Buildings in India

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of State, The Energy Research Institute (TERI)

This project facilitates and enables advanced design strategies, energy efficiency measures and financial initiatives, and overcomes barriers to and mainstreams high performance Energy Conservation Building Code compliant buildings in India. The grantee has studied the impact of high performance compliant commercial buildings on the overall electricity demand reduction, relative to the new commercial building sector expansion in India. The grantee is now improving awareness among major stakeholders such as architects, developers, policy makers, building material manufacturers, and equipment manufacturers in India resulting in the barrier removal of various Indian Energy Conservation Measures.

Mitigating Climate Change via Implementation of India's EE Standards and Labeling Program

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of State, The Collaborative Standards and Labeling Program (CLASP)

This project team is working with standards and labeling stakeholders, local experts, and international advisors to increase the uptake of more energy efficient appliances in India through technical assistance in standards and labeling, research and analysis of new priority S&L products, development of response strategies in partnership with the private sector, and best practices exchange.

The Urban Climate Project for Building Clean and Efficient Cities

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of State, Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI)

This project is currently facilitate a reduction in energy usage and GHG emissions in Indian cities through a multi-sector clean development that creates market places for clean technologies and implements on-the-ground projects in coordination with local government projects. This project is already resulting in the facilitation of new clean building codes, energy efficient equipment purchases, renewable and distributed generation in new developments, use of transit, methane capture for proposed landfills, and the purchase of GHG-friendly cement products for roads and buildings. This project is expected to create a 10-20% reduction in energy usage and GHG emissions in 1-3 urban centers.

Regional Energy Efficiency Centers in India

Participating Organizations: U.S. Agency for International Development – India (USAID India)

This project is currently developing up to four regional energy efficiency centers, each specializing in a technology such as buildings, heating, lighting, ventilation, air-conditioning, home appliances motors and pumps. These centers will advance awareness regarding demand side management and end-use efficiency. In addition the centers will promote energy efficiency technology cooperation and transfer between APP countries as well as showcase energy efficient technologies.

Quality Assurance Program and Harmonization of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL’s)

Participating Organizations: U.S. Agency for International Development – Regional Development Mission – Asia (USAID RDM/A)

A recent regional quality assurance survey has found that one in every two compact florescent lamps sold in Asia is substandard. This project is currently engaging India though a regional initiative to increase the compact fluorescent lamp quality assurance and regional harmonization of CFL specifications thereby strengthening its institutional capacity in testing, monitoring and reporting on Compact Florescent lamps. Harmonization of CFL test procedures and performance specifications are resulting in increased consumer confidence in CFL which leads to market expansion and greater energy efficiency.

National Energy Management Program

Participating Organizations: U.S. Agency for International Development – India (USAID INDIA)

This project is successfully implementing activities for managing the National Energy Management Program, focusing on government buildings, in India. This project is facilitating federal and state government leadership in smart energy management through the institutionalization of energy efficiency in existing and new public facilities. This project is serving as the strategic purpose of energy efficiency in India and is promoting an energy conservation ethic within the central and state government facilities of India. Major stakeholders in this project include the Indian Ministry of Power Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

EPA Climate Change Division International Capacity Building

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

This project is currently supporting the Government of India at the state and local levels by developing new, and expanding programs, which reduce the amount of energy used in Government buildings and equipment. This project also demonstrates leadership in the energy efficient arena in India. The successful implementation of this project is currently promoting best practices and demonstrating technologies and building design principles that increase energy efficiency in new and existing buildings.

Harmonization of Test Procedures: Electronics

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

One of the primary barriers to implementing an effective standards and labeling programs is variation in testing procedures to determine the energy efficiency of appliances among manufacturers. This project will work to establish uniform testing procedures for electronic appliances, in particular it will focus on computers and monitors, TVs, and set-top boxes.

Promoting Government Procurement Best Practices

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of State, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

With support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the U.S. Department of State (USDOS), the main objective of this project is to assist BEEs efforts to develop and implement National Government policies and procedures for efficient procurement in India. A successful July 2007 workshop co-sponsored by USEPA, USDOS, and USAID, produced a strong commitment from senior officials of the Indian government to move forward with development of an effective EE procurement program and identified a number of concrete steps to achieve this goal. USEPA has given BEE a detailed analysis of existing procurement laws, regulations and procedures in key organizations with recommendations for revisions that would change the basis of procurement from first cost to life cycle cost. A smaller, more focused, follow-up workshop was held in February 2008 at which a number of initial technical materials were demonstrated. Based on comments and discussion, these materials are being improved and expanded. They will ultimately serve as the basis for training on the implementation of the new procedures in federal agencies with some outreach to states anticipated.

Support for Implementation of an Energy Efficiency Endorsement Labeling Program for India

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of State, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

USEPA, USDOS, and the Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) have established a partnership to expand technical assistance to the Indian Ministry of Power and its BEE in developing and implementing an endorsement labeling program for consumer electronics products. This builds on work USEPA has supported for several years. This project is closely coordinating with the standards and labeling project led by the Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP). The original goal was to initiate a new endorsement labeling program with specifications for at least two products by December 2008, but the current ambitious timetable is to launch the first two labels for TVs and set top boxes (STB) in June 2008. At a February 2008 meeting with members of the BEE Technical Committee (TC) for TV and STB label specifications, it was agreed to use recommended test procedures for standby and on modes for TVs that are identical to those in the recently finalized ENERGY STAR revised specifications for most TV models. The proposed approach represents an improvement over current values and would move toward international values over a few years. Standby power allowed would be lowered to 1 watt for all TVs by 2010.

Pilot US-China Energy Efficiency Endorsement Labeling Harmonization

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The US and China will explore harmonization of certain elements of the US ENERGY STAR and China Standards Certification Center (CSC) energy efficiency endorsement labels. EPA and CSC will select one or more products and work to develop harmonized performance standards (including test procedures and performance criteria) for the selected products. Based on results of the harmonization of performance standards, EPA and CSC will consider selecting a product for a pilot harmonization of the labeling process.

Building Certification: Sharing U.S. Experiences on Data and Benchmarking with China

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) signed a Statement of Intent with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction (MHURC) in April 2008, to formalize cooperation on providing technical support to MHURC's building certification program. Leading up to the signing, USEPA and MHURC developed an implementation plan to collaborate on identifying, collecting, and analyzing building energy performance data and on developing and implementing a comparative building energy performance benchmarking system based on collected data. There is another component related to improving energy efficiency in existing buildings. One of the major activities a joint workshop to share the ENERGY STAR approach to comparative benchmarking methodology and software tool development and to discuss the challenges and opportunities for comparative benchmarking in China was conducted in early May 2008 for Ministry staff and experts from the Chinese Academy of Building Research.

Improving Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings in India and China

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Agency for International Development

The primary goals of this project are to establish continuous monitoring of energy performance as best practice for large commercial buildings and increase awareness of value of low-cost operations and maintenance (O&M) and cost-effective retrofits in commercial and public buildings. Supported by USEPA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (India), it has enlisted a wide range of private and public partners, provided training and technical assistance in implementation of energy efficiency measures, encouraged and recognized successful partners, and provided solid documentation of actual, cost-effective building energy savings in India and China through case studies. In India, private partners include the Indian Green Buildings Council, corporate building owners, major hotel chains, property management companies, service and equipment providers and electric utilities. The primary government partners are the Ministry of Power, its Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and State Agencies such as the Maharashtra Energy Development Agency.

Pilot Implementation of No-cost and Low-cost EE Measures in Existing Buildings

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

USEPAs domestic US ENERGY STAR buildings experience suggests that no-cost / low-cost (NC/LC) EE measures focusing on O&M can significantly reduce building energy use. Working with large-portfolios of buildings, USEPA will implement pilot-level activities in India and China to demonstrate and document the effectiveness of NC/LC measures, and build local capacity and expertise to implement such measures. Activities may include:

Training on building energy management and NC/LC measure implementation
Development of and training on a simple building energy performance monitoring and tracking tool.
Sharing of the USEPAs Building Upgrade Manual to outline the cost-effective options to reduce energy use in all building systems, starting with low-cost operational options, lighting, other building loads, and mechanical system upgrades.
Pilot implementation of NC/LC measures in buildings and collection of data via the energy performance monitoring tool to document success and improve building energy management.

Retrofit of Existing Building Chillers in India

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

This project complements the World Banks Global Chiller Energy Efficiency Project (GCEEP), with an early focus on demonstrations in India. The objective of GCEEP is to replace old commercial building chillers using CFCs with new, more energy-efficient, non-CFC equipment. With support from USEPA, the project has developed a CD-based tool to facilitate financial analysis of chiller retrofits and depending on the needs of the project, may provide technical assistance on chiller retrofit project design, whole building energy management, and refrigerant management in the disposal of the old chillers Several final approvals are expected in the May-June time frame, leading to the start of full project implementation in July 2008.

Develop a Guide to Retrocommissioning of Existing Buildings

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Retrocommissioning is a systematic investigation process for existing buildings that results in improving and optimizing a buildings O&M practices. Retrocommissioning primarily focuses on energy-using equipment and low-cost improvements rather than expensive capital intensive retrofit measures. The investigation may or may not emphasize bringing the building back to its original design. The project will develop a Guide to Retrocommissioning, including how to manage and implement programs, work with commissioning agents, etc., based primarily on experience in the US. This document will be circulated, tested, and discussed with other APP partners and revised as necessary to enhance its utility as a tool for energy efficiency improvements in existing buildings throughout the APP region.

BATF Building Codes Project: Accomplishments in India and China

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of Energy

The goals of this BATF project are to enhance mutual understanding of building energy codes and to establish or improve window labeling and certification programs in the APP countries. Led by the US Department of Energy and WinBuild, Inc., accomplishments in India to date include:

Establishment of a building simulation laboratory and post-graduate curriculum for Energy Efficiency in Buildings at the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, Ahmedabad, and capacity building of CEPT personal for Spectral data testing & analysis (March-April 2008 at LBNL). The project also is working with CEPT and the All India Flat Glass Manufacturer Association to develop a business plan for establishing an energy center for building envelopes. Over the next two years, the project partners will work with CEPT to establish a Building Envelope component testing laboratory at the center.
Trainings (and train the trainer workshops) in using the EnergyPlus building simulation program.
Assistance in developing guideline documents for the Indian Energy Conservation Building Code.
Manufacturer outreach meeting with policymakers, architects, builders, and investors in Ahmedabad.
Training of Indian researchers to use the WUFI program for heat and moisture migration.
Building simulation and technology demonstration at an IT Building Project at Gwal Pahari, New Delhi.
Participation in April 2008 Building Envelope Energy Efficiency Technology Cooperation Conference, Beijing.

Green Building Flagships in China

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of Energy

Improvements in building techniques have led to some buildings achieving significantly reduced energy consumption or other clean development climate objectives. Often, these techniques can be incorporated at no additional cost. The sharing of information and the commitment of Partner countries to the introduction of these measures will significantly reduce energy consumption and the associated emissions. In Beijing, several high-performance buildings are being constructed or enhanced, resulting in energy and cost savings, as well as a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. These include the Mayors Training Center, which will demonstrate high-performance building technologies to mayors during their semi-annual training meetings; the Olympic Village Micro-Energy Building that will house 17,000 athletes during the Olympics; and the Center of Excellence in Sustainable Design and Technology. These green buildings provide an opportunity to disseminate high-performance building principles throughout China and to other APP countries, and increase trade in materials used to make and service these buildings.

Indian High-Tech Buildings Initiative: Data Centers Pilot

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of Energy

This activity aims to help transform the market and build capacity for energy efficiency in Indian buildings for high-tech industries (laboratories, cleanrooms, and data centers), starting with data centers. In India, as in many countries, high-tech facilities are experiencing significant growth. However, to date, energy efficiency efforts in India have typically been limited to conventional building measures, leaving out the more energy intensive opportunities. Led by USDOE, in collaboration with India's BEE and Indian industry partners, the first phase of the data centers pilot project was carried out in January, 2008. The project leads gathered information on the current status of Indian data centers through visits to several data centers, a charrette-type meeting, and a workshop on improving data center efficiency in India. Recommendations stemming from these efforts include developing information/awareness materials and workshops for the Indian high-tech industry and government; capacity building and training; industry forums to facilitate peer-to-peer information exchange; developing performance indicators and a benchmarking framework; and creating a regulatory, standards, and incentives framework.

Good Practices and Lessons Learned in the APP Region to Promote Financing and the Implementation of Energy Efficiency Programs in Utilities

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. National, state, and regional organizations have been actively engaged, for over two decades, in promoting financing, and implementation of energy efficiency programs by energy utilities. Other APP partner countries have developed extensive experience in this area as well. The project will compile and assess available information on these experiences and develop a draft report suggesting lessons learned and good practices based on this experience. The project will facilitate review, revision, and discussion among experts from all APP countries. The goal is to develop and document consensus where possible among the APP members on good practices in utility regulation, and incentives promotion of effective demand side management (DSM) programs.

Good Practices: Reference Materials

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Compilation of examples of good synthesis reports that have been produced in the US recently; similar examples welcome from other APP countries. Included to date:

April 2006: Clean Energy-Environment Guide to Action: Policies, Best Practices, and Action Steps for States (USEPA)
July 2006: National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency (USDOE/USEPA)
November 2006: Aligning Utility Interests with Energy Efficiency Objectives: A Review of Recent Efforts at Decoupling and Performance Incentives (ACEEE).

Technical Support for China and India

Participating Organizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

China and India are both currently in the process of restructuring utility systems and implementing initial efforts in utility DSM. In the process, these two countries are experiencing many of the problems and barriers that have been encountered and addressed in many different ways in other APP countries. The project will identify opportunities to work cooperatively with partners at the national and state level to share experiences of other countries and provide information, tools, and technical assistance to support implementation of regulatory, incentive, and program models that are adapted and appropriate to their conditions and needs.

India Market Assessment for Expanding Energy Efficiency Effectiveness in Public Sector Buildings.

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of Energy

The purpose of this activity is to gather information that will be useful in future decisions on whether and how to invest in public sector building energy efficiency programs in India. Led by USDOE, the project team, in cooperation with USAID's ECO-III project and the Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), has established a process to profile energy consumption of public sector buildings in India. The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) are working with the team to facilitate the data collection process. The team has assembled audits from 40 buildings that represent a broad spectrum of types of Indian public buildings and is processing the data from those audits and other sources to complete the assessment.