Shaping the Energy Efficiency in New Buildings - Building Energy ...

f) South Korea’s building energy codes, the Building Design Criteria for EnergySaving (BDCES 2008) and RBFCO 2008, covers three regions: central, south andJeju Island.g) The United States building energy codes ASHRAE 90.1-2007 and InternationalEnergy Conservation Code (IECC 2006) cover eight climate zones: 1) very hothumidand dry; 2) hot-humid and dry; 3) warm-humid, dry and marine; 4) mixedhumid,dry and marine; 5) cool-humid, dry and marine; 6) cold-humid and dry; 7)very dry; and 8) subarctic.Generally, building energy codes in APP countries allow variations in climate andgeographic conditions and provide relevant information on the definition andcategorization of their climate zones and geographic coverage.2 Development HistoryDenmark was among the first countries to adopt comprehensive building energy codes in1961, and since then it has seen average household energy consumption per unit of spacedrop substantially (Lausten, 2008). Building energy codes are not new to the APP region.The United States was the first APP country to adopt a comprehensive building energycode, followed shortly thereafter by Japan and South Korea. As indicated by the timelineshown in Table 6, in the past 10-15 years, all APP countries have worked to strengthentheir building energy codes and enforcement systems. As a result, many APP countrieshave seen impressive improvements in the energy efficiency of new buildings. Currently,several APP countries are considering even more radical improvements to their buildingenergy codes. For example, the United States is considering a 30% improvement in therequirements for both commercial and residential buildings by 2010 and 2012,respectively. Climate change, energy security and consumer cost reduction are all driversbehind this trend.The remainder of this section summarizes the development of building energy policy andcodes in each APP country.22