The demand for multifamily homes is increasing dramatically. Currently RESNET standards only address buildings three stories or less. HERS® Raters, Energy Efficiency Program Sponsors and national green building programs that support energy efficiency in mid and high rise multifamily buildings needed guidelines that consistently cover the entire multifamily sector. To address this issue RESNET in 2013 formed a RESNET Multifamily Standards Working Group. Over a year the working group drafted guidelines that covers all multifamily residential buildings regardless of the number of stories or heating, cooling, ventilation and domestic hot water configurations (i.e. distributed and central). The technical guidelines include the living units, as well as the residential associated common spaces and exclude commercial/retail space. The members of the working group were: Ben Adams, MaGrann Associates James Brauer, US-EcoLogic Brian Christensen, Architectural Energy Corporation Krista Egger, Enterprise Community Partners David Epley, Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Patrick Fitzgerald, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority Asa Foss, U.S. Green Building Council Bruce Harley, Conservation Services Group Abe Kruger, SK Collaborative Scott Lee, Southface Energy Institute Ted Leopkey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Ken Owens, Jr., Franklin Energy Matthew Root, Conservation Services Group Rob Salcido, Architectural Energy Corporation Brian Stanfill, MaGrann Associates Gayathri Vijayakumar, Steven Winter Associates, Inc. Meghan Walsh, USDA Rural Development- Rural Housing Service Li Ling Young, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation On August 29, 2014 the RESNET Board of Directors adopted the RESNET Guidelines for Multifamily Energy Ratings that was developed by the working group. The guidelines provides guidance specific to multifamily ratings based on the RESNET national home energy rating standards. The guidelines address definitions, energy modeling, performance testing, inspections, and sampling. Each section of guidance begins with a “justification” and is then followed by the proposed “guidelines”. The intent is to provide the Standards Development Committee with the rationale and need for the guidelines that were created, and to also provide the actual text that could be separately developed into an actual RESNET multifamily standard for HERS® Raters to use. To view the standard go to RESNET Guidelines for Multifamily Energy Ratings RESNET and the HERS® industry owes a debt of gratitude to the members of the RESNET Multifamily Standards Working Group for lending their expertise to this important effort.
