42 U.S.C. § 17084 — Separate spaces with high-performance energy efficiency measures

(a) Definitions: This section defines two terms. A "high-performance energy efficiency measure" is any technology, product, or practice that saves real money by cutting energy use and utility bills. "Separate spaces" means parts of a commercial building that a tenant leases or occupies under a written agreement. (b) Study: Within one year of April 30, 2015, the Secretary of Energy, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, had to finish a study. The study had to look at two things: whether owners and tenants could make commercial buildings much more energy efficient by designing and building separate spaces with high-performance measures, and how to encourage owners and tenants to actually use those measures. The study had to cover at least these topics: which high-performance measures should be built in from the start; processes that owners, tenants, architects, and engineers could reuse; best practices for cutting energy use in lighting, plug-in devices, heating, cooling, cooking, and laundry systems; how the extra upfront cost compares to the energy savings over time, including any available incentives; models that predict how much energy an efficient separate space would use compared to a normal code-compliant space; ways to measure and verify whether installed measures actually deliver the savings they promised; best practices for designing separate spaces to work well with the building's central systems; and any effect the work has on jobs. The study also had to include case studies showing the actual economic and energy savings from real projects. Within 90 days of April 30, 2015, the Secretary had to publish a notice in the Federal Register asking the public for comments on effective methods and practices for building these efficient separate spaces. Finally, the Secretary had to publish the finished study on the Department of Energy's website.