Staff Review/Comments of Energy Compliance Software REM/Rate v15. 9/23/14
We detailed
below issues we feel
need to be addressed before this program is sufficient to receive
approval for use in determining compliance with
the
Florida Building Code
10. In
the help files there is no mention of the Florida Building
Code or its requirements it only
refers to
I-Code. We will reference in
Florida Energy Code in the code compliance section and
Whats
New Section
and the Introduction.
Staff
Response: Staff is in agreement with vendor but this has not been
implemented. There is no way to evaluate
functionality.
NORESCO Response this indeed has been implemented in the Help System under
Whats New
11. Building
Information
tab. Under housing
type Number of units should be labeled
with
(Apartments Only). Not correct for whole building multifamily only, not apartments. This is
something we could
do to
say that Number of Units is for whole building multifamily only. Level Type is for apartments only.
Staff
Response: Staff agrees but this has
not been implemented and has not been evaluated for accuracy.
NORESCO Response this indeed has been implemented in the Building
Information Tab for Number of Units
12. Building Information tab. Floors on or above grade is confusing; REM Rate should ask for
Number of floors. We could make that change for sure.
Staff
Response: Staff agrees but this has not been implemented and has
not been evaluated for accuracy.
NORESCO Response this indeed has been implemented in the Building
Information Tab for Number of Floors
15. Help
screens. Diagrams would
be
helpful in showing what values relate to
a certain building
assembly and remove confusion. Good sections that
do
this are the help page for Rib and
Band Joists. It would
be
good to have diagrams for each Building tab. That is a good
idea we can
enhance our help system with pictures for sure. WE have begun
this for slabs and foundations.
Staff Response: Staff agrees but this has
not been implemented and has not been evaluated for accuracy.
NORESCO Response this has been implemented
21. The REM Rate program does not restrict minimum required
R values below Florida Code
minimum requirements. For example on the Duct System
tab,
a duct R-value is allowed to be
entered
in unconditioned attic that is below R-8. We
are now checking
all mandatory
requirements for Florida code and
highlighting them prior to report viewing.
Mandatory Checks
1. UA Only - Electric Space Heating cannot be used for UA Analysis
2. UA Only - Air Handlers cannot be in the attic
3. UA Only - Window Area cannot exceed 20% ( Unless
an addition
the have 50% )
4. All
Equipment Efficiency must be above federal minimums.
5. All
Air Leakage
6. All
Maximum Fenestration SHGC (includes overhang exemption)
7. All
Duct Leakage
8. All
Mechanical Ventilation
9. All
Heating/Cooling
Equipment Sized Accordingly
a. Heating and
Cooling Equipment within 1.15 of capacity (warning only)
b. Efficiencies meeting
federal
minimums (water,
heat, cool)
10. Performance Ceiling Insulation
shall be at least
R-19
11. Performance Duct Insulation
R-6 if not fully inside conditioned envelope
Staff Response: Staff agrees but
this has not been implemented and has not been evaluated for accuracy.
NORESCO Response this has been implemented in all Florida reports that
they must pass prior to getting a report.
It shows up in a dialog box prior to the reports and is checked in the
source code for each report. The UA and
Performance reports do have different requirements.
32. Quick Analysis does not show a pass/fail
indicator for the Florida Code. The only way to determine this is to run
a report to
see
any Florida Code information.
We could add
Florida to QA
for
sure that would not be a problem.
Staff Response: Staff agrees but this has not been
implemented and has not been evaluated for accuracy.
NORESCO Response this indeed has been implemented in Quick Analysis
35. The software seems to
lack error checking
for
mandatory measures when running a performance compliance. A
user could
enter windows not meeting the area weighted
window SHGC when the overhang is less than
4 feet and
still
believe that they passed the code. The
building inspector would
have to
catch this on the output. We
are now checking all mandatory
requirements for Florida code and
highlighting them prior to report viewing.
Staff Response: Staff agrees but
this has not been implemented and has not been evaluated for accuracy.
NORESCO Response this has been implemented
41. The solar entry does not include the FEF input which is required
by
FL Code which states: True,
this is not one of the inputs for REM. We have our
own
calculation procedure for PV and
solar
thermal.
403.4.3.2.3 Solar
water heating systems. Solar
systems for domestic hot water production are rated by the annual solar energy factor
of the system. The solar energy factor
of a
system shall
be
determined from the Florida
Solar
Energy Center Directory of Certified Solar Systems. Solar collectors shall be tested in accordance with ISO Standard 9806,Test
Methods for Solar Collectors, and SRCC Standard TM-1, Solar Domestic Hot Water System and Component Test Protocol.
Answer For Florida Compliance we will
not allow credit for solar thermal applications because we do not use the annual solar energy factor of the system.
Staff Response: It would be beneficial for the user to have this
option.
NORESCO Response: Agreed and we need to rework our solar processor to allow
for a Solar Energy Factor rather than a performance curve. This will require a significant modification
to our current solar processor.
Additional
comments
42.) There is an error in the program. Whenever the print button located in the Quick Analysis window is pressed the program will crash. This was tested on two different PCs.
NORESCO Response: Thank you will be fixed prior to release of
v15