Washington State Energy Code.

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electrofelon

electrofelon

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Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
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Electrician
For you guys in WA, what is your experience with enforcement of the electrical aspects of the energy code? Within the city of Seattle, I have seen some enforcement by DCI electrical inspectors, but usually just the "basic" stuff like OC's and controlled outlets. Just a few days ago I had an inspection in L&I territory (the state inspectors who do areas outside of cities or cities that don't do their own) and they said they are not enforcing it. I had set this place up with 3 wire to all the offices for the controlled outlet requirements and everything 😡. I understand the energy code is law, but I wonder if they are vague about who is responsible for enforcing it?
 
Generally (I practice nationally), it is the Building Code Official that tries to enforce the Energy Code, which puts them at a disadvantage because they are out of their element trying to understand electrical and mechanical items such as controls and voltage drop.
 
Times have changed since I lived on Alki Beach. But your scenario can be applied to all inspections. I just wired a house in a county in NC. I put 2017 requirements. The inspector in that jurisdiction said they didn't require it.

(See below the requirement the OP is talking about in WA . ) I'm assuming they (energy gods) would want you to plug in your phone charger in the controlled outlet and not the other one.

C406.10 Controlled Receptacles At least 50 percent of all 125 volt 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed in private offices, open offices, conference rooms, breakrooms, individual workstations, and classrooms, including those installed in modular partitions and modular office workstation systems, shall be controlled as required by this section.
Either split receptacles shall be provided, with the top receptacle(s) controlled, or a controlled receptacle shall be located within 12 inches (0.3 M) of each uncontrolled receptacle.
Alternatively, non-controlled receptacles in a single modular workstation located not more than 72 inches from a controlled receptacle serving that workstation.
Controlled receptacles shall be visibly differentiated from standard receptacles and shall be controlled by one of the following automatic control devices:
1. An occupant sensor that turns receptacle power off when no occupants have been detected for a maximum of 20 minutes, or
2. A time-of-day operated control device that turns receptacle power off at specific programmed times and can be programmed separately for each day of the week.
The control device shall be capable of providing an independent schedule for each portion of the building not to exceed 5,000 square feet (2,300 m ) and not to exceed one full floor. The device shall be capable of being overridden for periods of up to two hours by an override switch accessible to occupants
. Any individual override switch shall control the controlled receptacles for a maximum area of 5,000 square feet (460 m ). Exception : Receptacles designated for specific equipment requiring 24-hour operation, for building maintenance functions, or for specific safety or security equipment.
 
Yeah they messed up the wording a bit, because as one inspector told me, you can simply make ALL receptacles controlled to meet the requirement - which would be so inconvenient that it would almost surly be defeated after inspection. They probably should have said something like a controlled recep must always have an uncontrolled recep next to it.
 
I think that could be a selling point. Not to save power, but safety. We wired a facility that had caught on fire. The owner wanted to be able to hit a switch and turn everything off except the HVAC , alarms and wifi. I did that through a series of relays. I impressed myself. It worked out good.
That was years ago. But I went by recently to check on it. Everything was working fine.
 
electrofelon said:
For you guys in WA, what is your experience with enforcement of the electrical aspects of the energy code? Within the city of Seattle, I have seen some enforcement by DCI electrical inspectors, but usually just the "basic" stuff like OC's and controlled outlets. Just a few days ago I had an inspection in L&I territory (the state inspectors who do areas outside of cities or cities that don't do their own) and they said they are not enforcing it. I had set this place up with 3 wire to all the offices for the controlled outlet requirements and everything 😡. I understand the energy code is law, but I wonder if they are vague about who is responsible for enforcing it?
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I was doing it on all project until they started getting V.E.'ed out. In a conversation with my lighting rep they typically see 90% of projects not actually install them, the 10% mostly consisting of government projects. Now I just have a note saying occ sensor controlled receptacles are to considered bid alternate pending enforcement.
 
Late to the party, but...

Like Sparky, putting a note calling them out as a bid alternate is the method I've been using, though I've had to revise my methods on a few federal projects. Every non-governmental project I've ever specified occ controlled plugs has ended up with owner complaining about them and then removing/disabling the occ sensors. After the 4th one, went to the bid alt. method.
 
L&I does not enforce state energy code, it’s typically the bldg dept that does. Often all the fancy controls get bypassed later by maintenance workers
 
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