Who: The Energy Star Program is a joint program between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
What is the EPA’s Energy Star for Commercial Buildings: Energy Star provides a Current Performance Rating for a building based on the type of building, the size and its current utility usage. This performance rating for a facility is on a scale of 1-100 relative to similar buildings nationwide using EPA’s national energy performance rating system. The performance rating is based on the facility’s source energy used, level of business activity and geographical location. A performance rating of 75 or higher qualifies for Energy Star.
Where: Eligible building types for Energy Star are: Bank/Financial Institutions, Courthouses, Data Centers, Hospitals (acute care and children’s), Hotels/Motels, Houses of Worship, K-12 Schools, Medical Office Buildings, Offices, Residence Halls/Dormitories, Retail Stores, Senior Care, Supermarkets/Grocery Stores and Warehouses (refrigerated and unrefrigerated).
Other Eligibility Criteria includes:
- Located in the United States
- Not a waste water or water facility
- 90% or more of the facility’s gross floor area must be owned or managed
- 12 months from period ending date of previously approved Energy Star application
- A Performance Rating of 75 or more
- Space attributes cannot use system default data
- Temporary energy meter values cannot be used in the 12 months preceding the Period End Date
- The current Period End Date must be no older than 120 days from today’s date
How: Log onto www. Energystar.gov and apply to join Energy Star, there is no cost to join. Then once the application is accepted you can use all the tools provided on the website. With the building’s general information and utility usage for the past 12 months in hand, you can input the building’s information and find out what Performance Rating the building gets, if the Performance Rating is 75 or above then you can apply for the Energy Star Certification for the building.
The website will help guide you through the applications process, but the basic steps are:
- Generate an eligible Statement of Energy Performance (SEP) and Data Checklist (MEP Engineering can assist with this step also)
- Hire a certified Licensed Professional Engineer (Like MEP Engineering) or Registered Architect to walk the building with the operations manager or building engineer, etc. to certify the information in the statement by observing temperatures, light levels, etc.
- Get the stamped and signed SEP and Data Checklist from the Licensed Professional.
- Complete the Energy Star Recognition form
- Download and sign a copy of the Letter of Agreement
- Mail in the signed SEP, checklist and Letter of Agreement
- Building name and type
- Building location
- Annual Occupancy rate
- Gross floor area
- Weekly operating hours
- Workers on main shift
- Number of PC’s
- Percent cooled and heated
- Area of enclosed and non-enclosed parking and hours of access
- Fuel types and energy consumption of each type
MEP Engineering has assisted many clients and completing the Energy Star Certification process and would love to assist you also.
Some buildings MEP Engineering has provided this service on are:
- One DTC; Greenwood Village, CO
- Colorado Center Point II; Denver, CO
- The Lowry Building, Denver; CO
- Parker Hospital Medical Office Building; Parker, CO
- 4600 South Syracuse; Greenwood Village, CO
- Atrium II; Greenwood Village, CO
- Agilent; Englewood, CO
- Aurora Medical Office Building; Aurora, CO
- Skyridge Hospital Medical Office Building; Lone Tree, CO
- 499 E. Hampden Ave.; Englewood, CO
- 701 E. Hampden Ave.; Englewood, CO
