The buildings sector includes energy used for constructing, heating, cooling, and lighting homes and businesses as well as the appliances and equipment installed in them—all of which account for over one third of global energy consumption and emissions. ASTM E3224-19: Standard Guide For Building Energy Performance And Improvement Evaluation In The Assessment Of Property Condition is a standard guide for evaluating building energy performance and identifying potential improvements.

Understanding Building Energy Performance

Building energy performance as defined by ASTM E3224-19 involves the collection of annual whole building energy consumption for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, and other related energy-consuming end-uses. Building energy consumption includes total electricity used at the building; purchased or delivered steam, hot water, or chilled water to the building; natural gas, fuel oil, propane, biomass, or any other matter consumed as fuel at the building. End-uses describes major energy-consuming uses in a building, including but not limited to: space heating, space cooling, ventilation, lighting, domestic hot water heating, refrigeration, cooking, office equipment, computers and miscellaneous.

Simply put, energy performance refers to the amount of energy consumed each year by a building, and it varies according to the kind of building and to its operation and its energy equipment.

What Is ASTM E3224?

ASTM E3224-19 defines a commercially useful standard in the United States for incorporating building energy performance into an assessment of existing property condition, and specifically into a property condition assessment (PCA) on a building involved in a commercial real estate transaction. The guide is intended to provide a methodology for the user to identify building energy under-performance compared to peer buildings via a process of collecting, analyzing, and reports on a building’s energy consumption.

If the building is under-performing compared to its peers, a methodology is provided to identify potential energy performance improvements and provide a probable cost for such improvements. For under-performing buildings, the methodology provided in ASTM E3224-19 identifies potential energy improvements and associated costs that may be able to bring the building to parity with peers.

Building Operations Contribute 30% of Global Energy Use

The operations of buildings account for 30% of global final energy consumption and 26% of global energy-related emissions (8% being direct emissions in building and 18% indirect emissions from the production of electricity and heat used in buildings). Given the growing concerns about climate change, reducing the environmental impact of buildings is critical. Building energy performance guidelines like ASTM E3224-19 can serve as practical tools for putting the buildings sector on track with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario.

Net Zero Emissions by 2050

The Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario is a normative International Energy Agency (IEA) scenario. It shows a pathway for the global energy sector to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050. This scenario also meets key energy-related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely achieving universal energy access by 2030 and major improvements in air quality. It is consistent with limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C with no or limited temperature overshoot (with a 50% probability), in line with reductions assessed in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC) in its Sixth Assessment Report.  

ASTM E3224-19: Standard Guide For Building Energy Performance And Improvement Evaluation In The Assessment Of Property Condition is available on the ANSI Webstore.