This Standard Protocol provides the methodology for estimating savings from non-residential lighting projects that are part of new construction projects, additions, major renovations, and changes in space use. The baseline for savings is the wattage allowances and control types prescribed in the prescriptive path in the building energy code that the project is subject to. For lighting applications exempt from the code, practitioners may estimate a current practice baseline, although savings from these applications are limited to 20% of the total project savings. To be eligible for this protocol, projects cannot use a performance path to compliance or otherwise trade-off lighting savings with code requirements for other systems.
The ex ante method relies on un-metered estimates of hours of use and controls savings fraction. The ex post method, which should be applied to a sample of sites, requires metering of hours of use and requires metering to determine controls savings fraction if a programs savings from controls are expected to be more than 5% of the total lighting program savings.
This new measure was approved by the RTF in January 2018.
There is a separate Retrofits Standard Protocol for projects subject to a code baseline.
