Commercial Buildings and Technology Initiative

Commercial Buildings and Technology Upstream Activities

NEEP facilitates the ongoing expansion of relationships and efficiency program activities geared to the upstream market actors (such as manufacturers, distributors, and the professional and trades communities), who exert significant influence upon the commercial buildings industry.

On behalf of, and often with, initiative sponsors, NEEP engages the upstream market actors to develop program models and tools that will meet the needs of industry and efficiency programs alike. NEEP then facilitates regionally coordinated deployment of the models and tools.

The concept for this project is to engage the upstream players so that incentives trickle "downstream" to installation contractors and end-use customers. This serves to reduce program interactions while maximizing the final effect on customers. Of course, it also helps to build relationships among all players in the market.

Design Lights Consortium (DLC): Regional Qualified Products List

The DLC Regional Qualified Products List project is identifying products using this exciting new technology which are not included in Energy Star's current lighting categories.

NEEP and its sponsors operate a process for manufacturers to submit data concerning their products, which is then used as an industry resource. Data requested follows IESNA (Illuminating Engineering Society of North America) specifications to assure validity.

NEEP has created a Steering Committee made up of program administrators and advisors who share experiences and expertise relating to LED technology. Discussions are built on how to continually improve the existing DLC QPL project. The primary goal is to increase opportunities to achieve energy savings in their lighting programs.

The process works to:

* Alleviate Program administrators's time needed for reviewing manufacturer's data individually and assures them that the passing LED fixture is a quality product that will perform over its rated life.
* Ease the process for manufacturers submitting test data to only one source and allow to be considered in the US and Canada (certain territories apply)
* Products that have passed proper testing are more likely to perform over their rated lives, as customers expect.

Find out more about NEEP's SSL work at its SSL Initiative page.

HVAC Upstream Program Tools

As part of this project, NEEP produced resource tools sponsors can use when interacting with upstream partners such as manufacturers and major distributors of packaged rooftop HVAC systems. The tools include contact information for upstream players, and templates for program design. NEEP and the HVAC working group work with the upstream players to maintain and refine these tools.

Commercial Lighting Solutions/DesignLights

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Commercial Lighting Solutions (CLS) project is a promising next evolution of lighting design resources. The NEEP Commercial Lighting working group has been collaborating with the DOE's Commercial Lighting Solutions (CLS) development team since 2007, to create such resources for retail buildings.

The centerpiece of the CLS is a web-based lighting design tool which helps designers save more than 30% in energy costs while delivering high quality lighting. The tool appeals to designers, architects and engineers, program administrators and building owners. It offers design options, prescribes lighting lay-outs and shows operating costs and energy savings.

Following the successful implementation of the the retail buildings CLS tools, the DOE will perform a similar exercise with office buildings, healthcare facilities, and schools. The NEEP DLC sponsors and the DOE CLS team are in a long-term relationship to exceed code lighting efficiency by more than 30% in commercial buildings throughout the Northeast.