A team of researchers from the University of Central Florida’s energy center has helped develop a new tool for rating the carbon emissions from buildings and homes.
The new tool could assist in targeting ways that businesses could be more energy efficient. Building energy use accounts for between 25 and 40 percent of consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., according to federal data from the Energy Information Administration and other sources.
The Residential Energy Services Network, or RESNET, developed the new CO2 Rating Index. The tool calculates energy emissions from buildings in a manner similar to a miles per gallon rating, according to the UCF release detailing the CO2 Rating Index.
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Philip Fairey, deputy director of UCF’s FSEC Energy Research Center, was a member of the RESNET team developing the rating index. The goal of the non-profit RESNET is to help facilitate greater national markets for energy efficiency technologies.
“Climate change is a real problem, and the leading cause of it is carbon dioxide emissions,” Fairey told the UCF media team. “While the auto industry has made great strides in reducing carbon emissions from vehicles, the most well-known emitter of CO2, many people don’t know that buildings themselves are responsible for about 35% of greenhouse gas emissions due to burning fossil fuels for power, heating and cooling.”
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RESNET previously developed the Home Energy Rating System (HERS), shown in the image attached to story image gallery. The CO2 Rating Index goes one step further in helping make the case for building decarbonization, according to the UCF release.
The National Resources Defense Council also has highlighted the CO2 Rating Index in a recent NRDC blog, noting the criticality of reducing building emissions if decarbonization goals are going to be reached.
Click here to see the full University of Central Florida story.
