My question to California Energy Commission:
Does the California Energy Commission and Title 24 exist in a way to control lighting levels, or does it exist to control energy usage?
- ?Indoor lighting is one of the single largest consumers of energy (kilowatt-hours) in a commercial building, representing about a third of electricity use (Source IEQ RFP, December 2002, California Energy Commission No. 500-02-501). The objective of the Standards is the effective reduction of this energy use, without compromising the quality of lighting or task work.?
- ?The primary mechanism for regulating indoor lighting energy under the Standards is to limit the allowed lighting power in watts installed in the building.?
These two quotes from
The Calif Energy Commission website. And From
Administrative Regs Calif Code of Regs ?This article contains administrative regulations relating to the energy building regulations in Title 24...?
To answer your question, it's to control energy usage, but the two are not necessarly different. Again if the light level you wanted to reach required you to install 7 watts per sq ft of lighting and T24 only allowed 5 watts per sq ft, then T24 would over ride. And also again, there are ways to do it such as using the area catagory method, it's just more work is all.
There are no trade offs for lighting such as if you putt in a higher seer AC you can add more wattage.
