California’s Energy Code, also known as Title 24, is updated every three years to follow the requirements established by the Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation & Development Act that was signed into law in response to the energy crisis of the early 1970s during Ronald Reagan’s second term as California’s governor. This law ensures the use of efficient, cost-effective building technologies by requiring that the state establish and maintain “building design & construction standards that increase efficiency in the use of energy for new residential and nonresidential buildings to reduce the wasteful, uneconomic, inefficient, or unnecessary consumption of energy…” These standards are called the Energy Code and are managed by the California Energy Commission.
Given the evolution of technology over the last 45 years, it is no surprise that the Energy Code – which addresses both commercial and residential applications – has expanded to keep up. The first edition of the Energy Code was released in 1978 and was 114 pages long. Now the state is enforcing its 15th edition (known as the 2022 Energy Code), which has 533 pages and is 4.6 times longer than the first edition.
The California Lighting Technology Center, in collaboration with Southern California Edison, RMS Energy Consulting LLC, and the California Energy Alliance, established a working group of industry stakeholders to develop recommendations that simplify and clarify the nonresidential and residential lighting and lighting controls language contained in the 2022 Energy Code.
Learn more about the initiative and recommendations in the June 2023 LD+A Research article and the final report.