New state energy codes push for greener building construction
New housing will soon have to be more energy efficient by making a pivot to solar. It’s part of an effort for the entire state to go green.
Houses under construction are a common sight in north Palm Desert with new developments popping up. As they keep popping up, they will eventually need a new addition: solar panels.
“We have a really great advantage here in the valley that we all come for and that’s called the sun,” David Freedman, a member of the Palm Springs Sustainability Commission, said.
Starting in January 2020, all new residential construction will require the use of solar panels. It’s part of new standards being set by the California Energy Commission.
Freedman says it’s a push by the state to help address climate change.
“We’re seeing that with hotter days and wind blowing in from the Salton Sea so that touches us very much,” he said.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1057025429859655680″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Starting in 2020, all residential construction in CA will require the use the solar energy through panels or other means. It’s part of an effort to get the state to zero net energy as part of it’s new energy codes. Full story tonight on &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; and &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/LocalTwo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@LocalTwo&#lt;/a&#gt;. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/UKveanysaI”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/UKveanysaI&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1057025429859655680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 29, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
To achieve that, the new standards focus on having buildings become zero net energy, meaning they use as much energy and they’re producing.
Another standard set for 2020 is requiring the use of LED lights for non-residential construction which use 75 percent less energy than regular incandescent light bulbs.
For Nate Otto, President of Hot Purple Energy, he believes the push towards solar is step forward, but doesn’t think there will be a significant uptick in his business.
“I just see that it’s going to get a little busy with contractors, but as the retrofit solar starts to decrease, because more and more house have solar on them, I think it’s going to even things out. I don’t think it’s going to be a big boom for the solar industry,” he said.
Meeting those new standards will also mean new houses will cost more upfront, but also make it cheaper to maintain.
“The cost of owning the home is actually going to go down quite a bit because of the savings of energy because your not paying those high electric bills. It’s going to make the house cheaper to own,” Otto said.
A cost offset that could be more common in the future.
According to the state energy commission the potential energy savings over thirty years with the new standards come out to an average of 19 thousand dollars per house.
