Guidelines for Home Energy Professionals: Standard Work Specifications for Single Family Energy Upgrades, 18576-18578 [2013-07048]
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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 59 / Wednesday, March 27, 2013 / Notices
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Dated: March 21, 2013.
Kate Mullan,
Acting Director, Information Collection
Clearance Division, Privacy, Information and
Records Management Services, Office of
Management.
[FR Doc. 2013–06957 Filed 3–26–13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy
Guidelines for Home Energy
Professionals: Standard Work
Specifications for Single Family
Energy Upgrades
Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE).
ACTION: Notice of availability.
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of
Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy (EERE) is making
final content available for the
Guidelines for Home Energy
Professionals: Standard Work
Specifications for Single Family Energy
Upgrades (SWS). This content is a set of
recommended work specifications
applicable to energy efficiency retrofits
of single family homes. These
PO 00000
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
specifications are intended as a resource
for any organization, company or
individual involved in energy efficiency
retrofits of residential homes. Draft
versions of the SWS were made
available for public comment on
November 9, 2010 (75 FR 68781) and on
March 29, 2012 (77 FR 19008). The
comment period for the March 29, 2011
draft was extended through a notice
issued on April 18, 2012 (77 FR 23238).
ADDRESSES: The SWS content can be
found at: www.wip.energy.gov/pdfs/
sws_singlefamily.pdf. The Comment
Report with responses to each comment
received as well as revisions made to
the text of the SWS can be found at
Regulations.gov under docket ID#
EERE–2012–WE–0042 or via direct link:
https://www.regulations.gov/#!docket
Detail;dct=FR%252BPR%252BN%25
2BO%252BSR%252BPS;rpp=25;po=0;
D=EERE–2012–WE–0042 as well as:
https://nrel.pnnl.gov/forum.php.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Joshua Olsen, Weatherization and
Intergovernmental Programs, Mailstop
EE–2K, Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of
Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue
SW., Washington, DC 20585. Phone
number: (202) 287–1813. Email:
Joshua.Olsen@ee.doe.gov.
For legal questions: Christopher
Calamita, U.S. Department of Energy,
Office of the General Counsel, Forrestal
Building, GC–71, 1000 Independence
Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585.
Phone number: (202) 586–1777. Email:
christopher.calamita@hq.doe.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
EERE through the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory is developing
voluntary work specifications for the
work involved in home energy
upgrades. This content builds upon the
considerable body of material already in
circulation and the cumulative
knowledge gathered throughout the 30year history of the Weatherization
Assistance Program (WAP) and broader
home performance industry.
The development of the SWS is
supported by the WAP Training and
Technical Assistance Plan (T&TA). The
process of developing the SWS has
involved participation by numerous
stakeholders, including WAP
practitioners and trainers, home
performance contractors, building
scientists, organized labor, healthy
homes and worker safety experts, and
other professionals in the building
trades and throughout the retrofit
industry. On November 9, 2010, EERE
issued a notice requesting public
E:\FR\FM\27MRN1.SGM
27MRN1
Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 59 / Wednesday, March 27, 2013 / Notices
comment on a draft version of the SWS
(75 FR 68781). Additional background
regarding this effort can be found in that
document. The first public comment
period resulted in nearly 1000
comments from approximately 100
unique commenters from across the
Weatherization and home performance
industries. As a result of issues
identified by commenters, EERE gave
further consideration to a number of
technical issues and subsequently made
changes to the SWS. EERE issued a
notice requesting public comment on
the changes to the SWS on March 29,
2012 (77 FR 19008). Due to the extent
of the changes in the March 29, 2012
draft, additional time was requested by
commenters for review and comment
and the comment period for the March
29, 2012 draft was extended through a
notice issued on April 18, 2012 (77 FR
23238). During this comment period
DOE received submissions from 16
commenters, which DOE broke out into
367 comments.
II. Public Comments on the March 29,
2012 SWS Draft
DOE has reviewed all comments and
incorporated those relevant and
appropriate to the SWS. DOE received 4
comments from 4 individuals that were
not applicable to the SWS and therefore
has not provided any response to those
comments.
Comments were received via an
online Web site created specifically for
the purpose of receiving, tracking and
responding to comments. The
individuals, agency and organizations
that provided comments are listed
below:
Name
Organization
Gregory Brunner ...................................
Charles White .......................................
Robert De Vries ....................................
Eric Williams .........................................
Minh Tu .................................................
John Smith ............................................
Jennifer Cleary ......................................
Nurul Mustafit ........................................
Alex Alexandru ......................................
Donald Prather ......................................
Ted A. Williams .....................................
Chuck White ..........................................
Phillip J. Wallace ...................................
John Diem .............................................
Patrick Murphy ......................................
Steve Baden .........................................
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ......................................
Plumbing Heating and Cooling Contractors (PHCC) ...........................................
Nu Wool Company Inc .........................................................................................
reEnergize Program, City of Omaha ...................................................................
www.phuclaithanh.com ........................................................................................
No Organization Given .........................................................................................
Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) .....................................
Jepara Gallery ......................................................................................................
Jocuri noi ..............................................................................................................
Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) ................................................
American Gas Association (AGA) ........................................................................
Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors Association (PHCC) ......................
Air-Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) ..................................
ESCO Institute .....................................................................................................
RSES ....................................................................................................................
RESNET ...............................................................................................................
Comments submitted were classified
into one of three categories: Accepted,
Accepted with Modifications, and
Rejected.
• Accepted: Comment was accepted
as presented by the Commentator.
• Accepted with Modifications:
Comment was accepted, however the
manner in which the comment was
presented, or suggested to be presented
within the SWS was revised to be in line
with the SWS template.
• Rejected: Comment was not
accepted for inclusion within the SWS.
The following table presents a
summary breakdown of the
classification of the comments received
during the final comment review period:
Number of
comments
Classification
mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Accepted .....................................
Accepted with Modification .........
Rejected ......................................
130
104
133
Total .....................................
367
Substantive, Reoccurring Comment
Themes
Substantive issues raised in the 367
comments can be divided into the
following four categories:
1. Combustion Safety—68.
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18:10 Mar 26, 2013
Jkt 229001
2. Air Sealing—27.
3. International Residential Code—22.
4. Licensed Professionals—8.
1. Combustion Safety:
a. BPI–1100–T–2010: The SWS
incorporated a reference to a draft
version of the BPI–1100–T–2010
document for many of the Combustion
Safety specifications. Comments made
on by ACCA, AGA, and RSES identified
that this reference was a draft and
therefore should not be included within
the SWS. These comments are available
at regulations.gov under Docket ID:
EERE–2012–WE–0042. The Building
Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI)
officially released this standard on July
27, 2012 (now BPI–1100–T–2012). After
review and consideration of the
standard, DOE determined that for the
purposes of the SWS, the draft BPI
standard referenced in the SWS is
functionally identical to BPI–1100–T–
2012. This standard provides the most
relevant combustion safety protocols
currently available for retro-fitting
existing homes under the WAP. The
SWS has been updated in order to
reflect the change in status of BPI–1100
from a draft to a published standard.
b. ANSI/ACCA Standard 12 and
NFGC: DOE received comments from
ACCA and AGA indicating that the BPI
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
18577
Location
Washington, DC.
South Bend, IN.
Jenison, MI.
Omaha, NE.
New York.
York.
Washington, DC.
Jepara.
Bucharest.
Alexandria, VA.
Washington, DC.
South Bend, IN.
Washington, DC.
Dickinson, ND.
Des Plaines, IL.
Oceanside, CA.
procedure for combustion safety testing
should not be specified and that either
the National Fuel Gas Code (NFGC) or
the ACCA 12 QH standard should be
used instead. These comments are
available at regulations.gov under
Docket ID: EERE–2012–WE–0042. Many
of the comments fail to consider issues
faced when working in the existing
homes sector: appliances are not
necessarily installed to code; other
actions may have taken place over the
years; and other issues that can impact
venting of appliances may have been
done poorly (e.g. duct leakage). The
non-mandatory combustion safety
testing in Annex G of the NFGC does
not evaluate two of the most common
causes of excessive depressurization,
namely duct leakage of forced-air
distribution systems and the closing of
interior doors. The ACCA 12 QH
standard references the BPI procedure
but also lists several other options. A
review of these options indicates that
only the BPI procedure is sufficiently
comprehensive in its requirements. For
example, the procedure in ACCA 12 QH
Appendix A turns on the air handler at
the same time as exhaust fans,
potentially obscuring the
depressurization caused by the exhaust
fans.
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mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
18578
Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 59 / Wednesday, March 27, 2013 / Notices
The combustion safety procedure in
the BPI–1100–2012 standard is the most
applicable to the work performed by the
WAP. This method was retained in the
SWS. If a suitable replacement becomes
ANSI-approved it may be appropriate to
modify the reference.
2. Air Sealing
a. Reference Standards: DOE received
comments from ACCA, RSES and AHRI
requesting that references be cited for
action levels, as well as the addition of
industry standards along with current
citations to the International Residential
Code. These comments are available at
regulations.gov under Docket ID: EERE–
2012–WE–0042. In reviewing the
comments, it was apparent that the
content required additional referencing
that was also easily searchable in order
to improve the comprehensiveness and
usability of the SWS. Therefore, a crossreference document was developed to
allow for users to identify referenced
standards for individual specification
lines that is included as an Appendix to
the SWS titled ‘‘Appendix C: Guide to
Referenced Standards’’.
3. International Residential Code
(IRC)
a. DOE received comments from
ACCA and RSES, indicating the citation
of specific sections of the 2012 IRC was
not necessary. These comments are
available at regulations.gov under
Docket ID: EERE–2012–WE–0042. The
comments identified that code sections
are often revised and it would be better
to cite ‘‘2012 IRC’’ versus a specific
section. DOE acknowledges that code
references are revised, however one of
the goals of the SWS was to allow users
to identify and find referenced
information easily without having to
purchase or search through numerous
pages of referenced text. Due to the size
of the IRC, it was apparent that
referencing a specific section allowed
the user to efficiently identify the
section to refer to and be able to apply
that knowledge quickly to the task.
Therefore, citation of specific sections of
the 2012 IRC remain in the SWS.
4. Licensed Professionals
a. DOE received comments from
PHCC indicating that certain tasks
should be carried out by individuals
licensed in a particular trade. These
comments are available at
regulations.gov under Docket ID: EERE–
2012–WE–0042. DOE agrees that the use
of licensed professionals to perform
certain tasks is an important component
of maintaining work quality and safety.
Given the wide range of licensure and
credentialing requirements across the
country, DOE made the decision to
include a notification at the beginning
of each detail in the SWS to alert the
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18:10 Mar 26, 2013
Jkt 229001
reader that the detail may contain a task
requiring a licensed or credentialed
contractor. This is intended to ensure
that the reader is aware of the
possibility of the need for a licensed or
credentialed professional and to
encourage them to verify this with the
authority having jurisdiction.
A full comment report with responses
to each comment received as well as
revisions made to the content of the
SWS can be found at: https://
nrel.pnnl.gov/forum.php
Issued in Washington, DC, on March 5,
2013.
AnnaMaria Garcia,
Program Manager, Weatherization and
Intergovernmental Programs, Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy .
[FR Doc. 2013–07048 Filed 3–26–13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical
Advisory Committee (HTAC)
Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, Department of
Energy.
ACTION: Notice of Open Meeting.
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: This notice announces an
open meeting of the Hydrogen and Fuel
Cell Technical Advisory Committee
(HTAC). The Federal Advisory
Committee Act, Public Law 92–463, 86
Stat. 770, requires notice of the meeting
be announced in the Federal Register.
DATES: Tuesday, April 23, 2013, 9:00
a.m.–5:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 24,
2013, 8:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.
ADDRESSES: National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL); 901 D Street SW.,
Suite 930, Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Email: HTAC@nrel.gov or at the mailing
address: Joseph Stanford, Designated
Federal Officer, U.S. Department of
Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, 1000 Independence
Avenue, Washington, DC 20585.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose of the Committee: The
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical
Advisory Committee (HTAC) was
established under section 807 of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT),
Pub. L. No. 109–58; 119 Stat. 849.
Purpose of the Meeting: To provide
advice, information, and
recommendations to the Secretary of
Energy on the program authorized by
Title VIII of EPACT.
PO 00000
Frm 00020
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 9990
Tentative Agenda: (updates will be
posted on the Web at: https://
hydrogen.energy.gov).
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Public Comment
HTAC Working Group Updates
DOE Leadership Updates
Program and Budget Updates
Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Industry
Speakers
Other Industry Speakers
Government Speakers
Transportation Updates
Department of Defense Update
Ohio Activities and Initiatives
Public Participation: The meeting is
open to the public. Individuals who
would like to attend and/or to make oral
statements during the public comment
period must register no later than 5:00
p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, by
email at HTAC@nrel.gov. Foreign
nationals must register no later than
5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 8, 2013.
Foreign nationals will be required to fill
out a questionnaire in order to have
access to the meeting site and will be
notified within 5–10 business days
regarding their access to the meeting.
An early confirmation of attendance
will help to facilitate access to the
building more quickly. Entry to the
building will be restricted to those who
have confirmed their attendance in
advance. Please provide your name,
organization, citizenship, and contact
information. Anyone attending the
meeting will be required to present
government-issued identification. Those
wishing to make a public comment are
required to register. The public
comment period will take place between
9:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. on April 23,
2013. Time allotted per speaker will
depend on the number who wish to
speak but will not exceed five minutes.
Those not able to attend the meeting or
have insufficient time to address the
committee are invited to send a written
statement to HTAC@nrel.gov.
Minutes: The minutes of the meeting
will be available for public review at
https://hydrogen.energy.gov.
Issued at Washington, DC, on March 21,
2013.
LaTanya R. Butler,
Deputy Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013–07026 Filed 3–26–13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450–01–P
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 59 (Wednesday, March 27, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18576-18578]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-07048]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Guidelines for Home Energy Professionals: Standard Work
Specifications for Single Family Energy Upgrades
AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE).
ACTION: Notice of availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy (EERE) is making final content available for the
Guidelines for Home Energy Professionals: Standard Work Specifications
for Single Family Energy Upgrades (SWS). This content is a set of
recommended work specifications applicable to energy efficiency
retrofits of single family homes. These specifications are intended as
a resource for any organization, company or individual involved in
energy efficiency retrofits of residential homes. Draft versions of the
SWS were made available for public comment on November 9, 2010 (75 FR
68781) and on March 29, 2012 (77 FR 19008). The comment period for the
March 29, 2011 draft was extended through a notice issued on April 18,
2012 (77 FR 23238).
ADDRESSES: The SWS content can be found at: www.wip.energy.gov/pdfs/sws_singlefamily.pdf. The Comment Report with responses to each
comment received as well as revisions made to the text of the SWS can
be found at Regulations.gov under docket ID EERE-2012-WE-0042
or via direct link: https://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;dct=FR%252BPR%252BN%252BO%252BSR%252BPS;rpp=25;po=0;D=EER
E-2012-WE-0042 as well as: https://nrel.pnnl.gov/forum.php.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joshua Olsen, Weatherization and
Intergovernmental Programs, Mailstop EE-2K, Office of Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence
Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585. Phone number: (202) 287-1813. Email:
Joshua.Olsen@ee.doe.gov.
For legal questions: Christopher Calamita, U.S. Department of
Energy, Office of the General Counsel, Forrestal Building, GC-71, 1000
Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585. Phone number: (202) 586-
1777. Email: christopher.calamita@hq.doe.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
EERE through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is developing
voluntary work specifications for the work involved in home energy
upgrades. This content builds upon the considerable body of material
already in circulation and the cumulative knowledge gathered throughout
the 30-year history of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and
broader home performance industry.
The development of the SWS is supported by the WAP Training and
Technical Assistance Plan (T&TA). The process of developing the SWS has
involved participation by numerous stakeholders, including WAP
practitioners and trainers, home performance contractors, building
scientists, organized labor, healthy homes and worker safety experts,
and other professionals in the building trades and throughout the
retrofit industry. On November 9, 2010, EERE issued a notice requesting
public
[[Page 18577]]
comment on a draft version of the SWS (75 FR 68781). Additional
background regarding this effort can be found in that document. The
first public comment period resulted in nearly 1000 comments from
approximately 100 unique commenters from across the Weatherization and
home performance industries. As a result of issues identified by
commenters, EERE gave further consideration to a number of technical
issues and subsequently made changes to the SWS. EERE issued a notice
requesting public comment on the changes to the SWS on March 29, 2012
(77 FR 19008). Due to the extent of the changes in the March 29, 2012
draft, additional time was requested by commenters for review and
comment and the comment period for the March 29, 2012 draft was
extended through a notice issued on April 18, 2012 (77 FR 23238).
During this comment period DOE received submissions from 16 commenters,
which DOE broke out into 367 comments.
II. Public Comments on the March 29, 2012 SWS Draft
DOE has reviewed all comments and incorporated those relevant and
appropriate to the SWS. DOE received 4 comments from 4 individuals that
were not applicable to the SWS and therefore has not provided any
response to those comments.
Comments were received via an online Web site created specifically
for the purpose of receiving, tracking and responding to comments. The
individuals, agency and organizations that provided comments are listed
below:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name Organization Location
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory Brunner.......................... United States Environmental Washington, DC.
Protection Agency (EPA).
Charles White............................ Plumbing Heating and Cooling South Bend, IN.
Contractors (PHCC).
Robert De Vries.......................... Nu Wool Company Inc......... Jenison, MI.
Eric Williams............................ reEnergize Program, City of Omaha, NE.
Omaha.
Minh Tu.................................. www.phuclaithanh.com........ New York.
John Smith............................... No Organization Given....... York.
Jennifer Cleary.......................... Association of Home Washington, DC.
Appliance Manufacturers
(AHAM).
Nurul Mustafit........................... Jepara Gallery.............. Jepara.
Alex Alexandru........................... Jocuri noi.................. Bucharest.
Donald Prather........................... Air Conditioning Contractors Alexandria, VA.
of America (ACCA).
Ted A. Williams.......................... American Gas Association Washington, DC.
(AGA).
Chuck White.............................. Plumbing, Heating and South Bend, IN.
Cooling Contractors
Association (PHCC).
Phillip J. Wallace....................... Air-Conditioning, Heating & Washington, DC.
Refrigeration Institute
(AHRI).
John Diem................................ ESCO Institute.............. Dickinson, ND.
Patrick Murphy........................... RSES........................ Des Plaines, IL.
Steve Baden.............................. RESNET...................... Oceanside, CA.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments submitted were classified into one of three categories:
Accepted, Accepted with Modifications, and Rejected.
Accepted: Comment was accepted as presented by the
Commentator.
Accepted with Modifications: Comment was accepted, however
the manner in which the comment was presented, or suggested to be
presented within the SWS was revised to be in line with the SWS
template.
Rejected: Comment was not accepted for inclusion within
the SWS.
The following table presents a summary breakdown of the
classification of the comments received during the final comment review
period:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of
Classification comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accepted.................................................... 130
Accepted with Modification.................................. 104
Rejected.................................................... 133
-----------
Total................................................... 367
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Substantive, Reoccurring Comment Themes
Substantive issues raised in the 367 comments can be divided into
the following four categories:
1. Combustion Safety--68.
2. Air Sealing--27.
3. International Residential Code--22.
4. Licensed Professionals--8.
1. Combustion Safety:
a. BPI-1100-T-2010: The SWS incorporated a reference to a draft
version of the BPI-1100-T-2010 document for many of the Combustion
Safety specifications. Comments made on by ACCA, AGA, and RSES
identified that this reference was a draft and therefore should not be
included within the SWS. These comments are available at
regulations.gov under Docket ID: EERE-2012-WE-0042. The Building
Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI) officially released this standard on
July 27, 2012 (now BPI-1100-T-2012). After review and consideration of
the standard, DOE determined that for the purposes of the SWS, the
draft BPI standard referenced in the SWS is functionally identical to
BPI-1100-T-2012. This standard provides the most relevant combustion
safety protocols currently available for retro-fitting existing homes
under the WAP. The SWS has been updated in order to reflect the change
in status of BPI-1100 from a draft to a published standard.
b. ANSI/ACCA Standard 12 and NFGC: DOE received comments from ACCA
and AGA indicating that the BPI procedure for combustion safety testing
should not be specified and that either the National Fuel Gas Code
(NFGC) or the ACCA 12 QH standard should be used instead. These
comments are available at regulations.gov under Docket ID: EERE-2012-
WE-0042. Many of the comments fail to consider issues faced when
working in the existing homes sector: appliances are not necessarily
installed to code; other actions may have taken place over the years;
and other issues that can impact venting of appliances may have been
done poorly (e.g. duct leakage). The non-mandatory combustion safety
testing in Annex G of the NFGC does not evaluate two of the most common
causes of excessive depressurization, namely duct leakage of forced-air
distribution systems and the closing of interior doors. The ACCA 12 QH
standard references the BPI procedure but also lists several other
options. A review of these options indicates that only the BPI
procedure is sufficiently comprehensive in its requirements. For
example, the procedure in ACCA 12 QH Appendix A turns on the air
handler at the same time as exhaust fans, potentially obscuring the
depressurization caused by the exhaust fans.
[[Page 18578]]
The combustion safety procedure in the BPI-1100-2012 standard is
the most applicable to the work performed by the WAP. This method was
retained in the SWS. If a suitable replacement becomes ANSI-approved it
may be appropriate to modify the reference.
2. Air Sealing
a. Reference Standards: DOE received comments from ACCA, RSES and
AHRI requesting that references be cited for action levels, as well as
the addition of industry standards along with current citations to the
International Residential Code. These comments are available at
regulations.gov under Docket ID: EERE-2012-WE-0042. In reviewing the
comments, it was apparent that the content required additional
referencing that was also easily searchable in order to improve the
comprehensiveness and usability of the SWS. Therefore, a cross-
reference document was developed to allow for users to identify
referenced standards for individual specification lines that is
included as an Appendix to the SWS titled ``Appendix C: Guide to
Referenced Standards''.
3. International Residential Code (IRC)
a. DOE received comments from ACCA and RSES, indicating the
citation of specific sections of the 2012 IRC was not necessary. These
comments are available at regulations.gov under Docket ID: EERE-2012-
WE-0042. The comments identified that code sections are often revised
and it would be better to cite ``2012 IRC'' versus a specific section.
DOE acknowledges that code references are revised, however one of the
goals of the SWS was to allow users to identify and find referenced
information easily without having to purchase or search through
numerous pages of referenced text. Due to the size of the IRC, it was
apparent that referencing a specific section allowed the user to
efficiently identify the section to refer to and be able to apply that
knowledge quickly to the task. Therefore, citation of specific sections
of the 2012 IRC remain in the SWS.
4. Licensed Professionals
a. DOE received comments from PHCC indicating that certain tasks
should be carried out by individuals licensed in a particular trade.
These comments are available at regulations.gov under Docket ID: EERE-
2012-WE-0042. DOE agrees that the use of licensed professionals to
perform certain tasks is an important component of maintaining work
quality and safety. Given the wide range of licensure and credentialing
requirements across the country, DOE made the decision to include a
notification at the beginning of each detail in the SWS to alert the
reader that the detail may contain a task requiring a licensed or
credentialed contractor. This is intended to ensure that the reader is
aware of the possibility of the need for a licensed or credentialed
professional and to encourage them to verify this with the authority
having jurisdiction.
A full comment report with responses to each comment received as
well as revisions made to the content of the SWS can be found at:
https://nrel.pnnl.gov/forum.php
Issued in Washington, DC, on March 5, 2013.
AnnaMaria Garcia,
Program Manager, Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs, Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy .
[FR Doc. 2013-07048 Filed 3-26-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
