California Energy Commission Adopts the 2022 Energy Code

With the California Energy Commission’s unanimous approval of the 2022 California Energy Code (Title 24, Part 6), California became the first state in the nation to include prescriptive requirements for solar photovoltaic and battery storage systems in select newly constructed nonresidential buildings. The new and revised code requirements are all cost effective and will make California buildings more energy efficient and better equipped to deploy advanced load management strategies. For many building types and climate zones, the 2022 code also strongly encourages the use of electric heat pump systems for either space conditioning or water heating, and in limited cases, for both.

Over the next 30 years, the 2022 Energy Code is estimated to provide $1.5 billion in consumer benefits and reduce 10 million metric tons of GHGs, equivalent to taking nearly 2.2 million cars off the road for a year. Expanded adoption of new energy efficient technologies will help reduce costs of the technology over time.

The California Statewide Utility Codes and Standards Enhancement (CASE) Team actively participated in the Energy Commission’s code change process. With input from hundreds of individual stakeholders, the Statewide CASE Team developed 91 unique code change proposals for the Energy Commission to consider. Of those proposals 66 are included in the 2022 code, many with revisions to address stakeholder questions and comments. The Energy Commission has indicated another 12 proposals may be incorporated into the compliance software as new or revised features become available for the performance approach.

We had the opportunity to work collaboratively with many dedicated individuals and organizations when developing and refining CASE proposals. We hosted 25 public stakeholder meetings from August 2019 to May 2020 to offer stakeholders an opportunity to provide feedback on proposed code changes. Over 3,500 attendees from 405 unique companies and organizations participated. We received feedback on code change proposals from requests we sent to over 3,000 contacts from a diverse variety of industries and trades, including manufacturers, advocacy groups, local governments, and building and energy professionals. Thank you for working with us! Today, we celebrate our collective accomplishment in taking a big step towards building decarbonization and achieving statewide energy and climate goals.

The 2022 California Energy Code will become effective January 1, 2023. To prepare, look to EnergyCodeAce.com, provided by the California Statewide Codes & Standards Program, for no-cost tools, training, and resources for those who need to understand and meet the requirements of Title 24, Part 6 and Title 20. View the California Energy Commission’s executive summary and learn more at https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/building-energy-efficiency-standards/2022-building-energy-efficiency

Accomplishing this important milestone would have not been possible without input and contributions from hundreds of stakeholders.

Thank you for your continued support and participation.