Energy Efficiency Standards - Essay Example

For the provision of various services to the population in less-developed countries, electricity is of vital importance and its demand is increasing on regular basis as the people of these countries continue to improve their living standards. This increase is most notable in the non-residential sector. The governments in most of the countries are highly concerned about the increasing energy demands. Various courses of action and strategies have been devised by the government to limit the energy consumption by the buildings.

These strategies and policies can be broadly classified into three categories: regulatory requirements (e.g. standards and codes), awareness programs (e.g. energy audits, energy saving campaigns on media, information sharing campaigns etc.) and economic incentives (e.g. energy pricing, cost-benefit analysis reports, easy loans, payback mechanisms and taxes exemption etc.). Very productive and useful steps are being taken forward regarding the implementation of these programs by the public and private organizations which are also forming associations with each other.

Some of the examples include the National Productivity Organization in China, Energy Star in the US and the Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme in the UK. Moreover private companies like the Synergy Solutions and the US Green Building Council have initiated a very unique and innovative award program for the energy efficient organizations giving new targets to the building industry. The main focus of the above mentioned schemes is setting standards of energy efficiency in buildings. The standards in practice are of various types depending on the mechanism of their enforcement; varying from voluntary initiatives according to some guidelines to obligatory requirements.

Experts from various fields and organizations which include people from governmental organizations, corporate sector, construction industry, educational institutions, professional and technical societies have contributed to the formulation and development of these energy efficiency codes and standards. Same is the case with the various energy efficiency techniques and strategies. The most important phase is developing the basic configuration of these codes based on the construction practices as well as the climate of a specific region or a country.

After the development of this basic configuration, the codes and standards can be modified and amended accordingly with the development of technology and changing climatic conditions. Implementation of these standards results in a sustainable development in buildings, with increased life and better productivity in terms of service and occupancy. These standards are making the concept of energy efficiency understandable to common individuals by increasing awareness. People now think about the benefits of energy efficiency while constructing their buildings and this trend is also being followed in buildings with heavy renovation projects with an approach to upgrade the buildings in terms of energy efficiency.

Energy standards are revolutionizing the energy efficiency in building industry because they provide a very easy and economically feasible approach to energy conservation but their formulation and implementation is not very easy. Most of the energy standards have been developed for the residential buildings but the detailed standards have not been developed fo