public disclosure authorized lebanon: thermal standards...

June 2011

Lebanon: Thermal Standards for Buildings - Review and Implementation Plan

Final Report

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PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Limited (India) was engaged by the World Bank under selection no 1015728/Lebanon: Thermal Building Standards – Review and Implementation Plan in January 2011. The scope of work under this engagement was: Task 1: Review existing thermal standards developed in 2005 and 2010, in light of changed fuel and electricity production costs, and changes in building design and construction practice and energy utilization. Either ratify these standards or define areas in which standards must be updated or revised; Task 2: Identify and outline any factors related to establishing thermal standards for new buildings, including categorization of standards and application for different types of buildings (residential, commercial, etc), and legal and regulatory structure to promote adoption of that have not been considered in existing standards. Task 3: Provide advice on best practice in the enactment, enforcement and subsequent implementation of thermal building standards, based on international experience; Task 4: Identify barriers to implementation of thermal building standards particular to the Lebanese context, including current electricity tariff levels; Task 5: Develop a roadmap for the implementation of a Thermal Standards Program and enactment and enforcement of thermal standards for new buildings in Lebanon, including consideration of legal and regulatory requirements for mandatory adoption of thermal building standards. This roadmap will address the barriers to implementation identified above, and recommend possible financial and/or other incentives such as CDM to assist with the adoption of thermal building standards; Task 6: Identify key stakeholders and ensure that the proposed roadmap addresses any stakeholder issues that could affect implementation; Task 7: Develop training/communication materials and undertake a dissemination / awareness building workshop in order to facilitate the initiation of the implementation roadmap. Following deliverables have been completed in this assignment

Review and recommendations with respect to existing Thermal Building Standards and thermal standard calculation model, taking into account the changes outlined in Task 3.

Draft Roadmap for implementation of thermal building standards, appropriate to the Lebanese context and addressing identified barriers to implementation.

Stakeholder Workshop in preparation for adoption of standards. This report incorporates the observations and comments on the stakeholder consultation carried out on 28 June 2011. The team for the assignment comprises of following: Inderjeet Singh (Sr. Manager PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon, India) Vishal Garg (Associate Professor, Center of IT in Building Science, IIIT Hyderabad, India) Jyotirmay Mathur (Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, MNIT, Jaipur, India) Maya Aleywan (PricewaterhouseCoopers, MENA Region)


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Contents

Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................08

1. RATIONALE AND SCOPE OF ROADMAP FOR BEEC ......................................................... 12

1.1 RATIONALE ............................................................................................................................................. 12 1.2 GOAL .......................................................................................................................................................... 13 1.3 SCOPE ......................................................................................................................................................... 14

2. CURRENT STATUS OF ENERGY/THERMAL STANDARDS IN LEBANON .................. 15

2.1 LEBANON ENERGY SCENARIO .................................................................................................................... 15 2.2 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................................... 16 2.3 REGULATORY FRAMEWORK ...................................................................................................................... 17 2.4 MAJOR EFFORTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS ..................................................................................................... 17

3. FEATURES OF EFFECTIVE BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY CODE(S) ................... 20

3.1 BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY CODE ...................................................................................................... 20 3.1.1 Scope ................................................................................................................................................. 20 3.1.2 Compliance Approach .................................................................................................................... 20 3.1.3 Adoption Approach ........................................................................................................................ 21

3.2 INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES ............................................................................................................ 22 3.2.1 Technical Scope of Codes ............................................................................................................... 22 1. Whole building scope ..................................................................................................................... 22 2. Addressing climatic variation ...................................................................................................... 23 3. Addressing residential and commercial buildings ................................................................... 23 4. Specific calculation structure ....................................................................................................... 24 5. Calculation procedure ................................................................................................................... 25 3.2.2 Mechanism for implementation and enforcement of codes ................................................ 26 1. Regular updating of BEEC............................................................................................................ 26 2. Staged implementation ................................................................................................................. 27 3. Mandatory compliance ................................................................................................................. 27 4. Thorough enforcement procedure ............................................................................................... 28 5. Penalties for lack of compliance ................................................................................................... 29 6. Track compliance rates ................................................................................................................. 29 3.2.3 Code implementation support ...................................................................................................... 30 1. Code training and certification .................................................................................................... 30 2. Voluntary high performance incentive programs .................................................................... 30 3. Demonstration projects ................................................................................................................. 31

3.3 BEEC DEVELOPMENT AND ENFORCEMENT ............................................................................................. 31 3.3.1 Code Development .......................................................................................................................... 31 3.3.1 Code Enforcement........................................................................................................................... 32

3.4 ENERGY EFFICIENCY GOVERNANCE .......................................................................................................... 34

4. BARRIERS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF BEEC ....................................................................... 37

4.1 POLITICAL BARRIERS ................................................................................................................................. 37 4.2 COMPLEXITY OF PROCEDURES .................................................................................................................. 37 4.3 MARKET BARRIERS ................................................................................................................................... 37

5 APPROACH OF ROADMAP FOR IMPLEMENTING BEEC IN LEBANON ................... 40

6. DETAILS OF SHORT TERM ROADMAP ................................................................................. 42

6.1 CODE DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................................................. 42 6.1.1 Modification of existing Thermal Standards (TSBL) into Elemental Building Energy Efficiency Code ......................................................................................................................................... 42 6.1.2 Specifying Lighting Efficiency through Lighting Power Density ........................................... 44


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6.1.3 HVAC system efficiency ................................................................................................................. 46 6.1.4 Solar Water Heating ...................................................................................................................... 47 6.1.5 Covering major retrofitting and extension of existing buildings: .......................................... 48 6.1.6 Mechanism for short term code development ............................................................................ 48

6.2 ADOPTION .................................................................................................................................................. 48 6.3 IMPLEMENTATION ..................................................................................................................................... 50 6.4 ENFORCEMENT .......................................................................................................................................... 53 6.5 FINANCIAL ESTIMATES .............................................................................................................................. 57

7. DETAILS OF MEDIUM TERM ROADMAP ............................................................................. 59

7.1 DEVELOPMENT OF CODE ............................................................................................................................ 59 7.2 ADOPTION .................................................................................................................................................. 61 7.3 IMPLEMENTATION ..................................................................................................................................... 61 7.4 ENFORCEMENT .......................................................................................................................................... 67 7.5 COMPLIANCE TRACKING ............................................................................................................................ 70

8. CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM .................................................................................. 71

8.1 APPROACH & METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................... 73 8.2 ASSURANCE OF REVENUE .......................................................................................................................... 74 8.3 IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF CDM .................................................................................................................. 74

9. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 76

10. ACTIVITY SCHEDULE ............................................................................................................. 77

11. REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 85

APPENDIX 1- COMPARISON OF TSBL 2005 AND TSBL 2010 WITH INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES ................................................................................................................................... 87

APPENDIX 2- REVIEW AND COMPARISON OF TSBL 2005 AND TSBL 2010 .................... 93

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: ............................................................................................................................... 93 COMPARISON OF TSBL2005 AND TSBL2010 RELATED TO PRESCRIPTIVE AND TRADE-OFF METHOD: ........ 94 COMPARISON OF TSBL-2005 AND TBL-2010 FOR PERFORMANCE METHOD: .............................................. 99 COMPARISON OF TSBL-2005 AND TBL-2010 FOR COMPLIANCE FORMS AND TOOLS: ................................ 101

APPENDIX 3- RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ADOPTING TSBL 2005 AND TSBL 2010 FOR DEVELOPING ELEMENTAL CODE AND BEEC ........................................................................... 102


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List of Figures

Page

No

Figure 1.1: Phases of Demand Side Management (DSM) in building sector 12

Figure 3.1: BEEC development and revision cycle 25

Figure 3.2: Role of voluntary and mandatory programs for energy efficiency 30

Figure 3.3: Energy Efficiency Governance 34

Figure 5.1: Roadmap for implementing BEEC in Lebanon 41

Figure 6.1: From code development to compliance 42

Figure 6.2: Scope of Committee for development of Elemental BEEC 43

Figure 6.3: Phased implementation of the elemental code 49 Figure 6.4: Building Permit System in Lebanon 54 Figure 6.5: Enforcement of the elemental BEEC 55

Figure 7.1: Overall structure and working of various groups for development of

building energy efficiency code

60

Figure 7.2: Enforcement of the performance BEEC 69

Figure 8.1: CDM project cycle 71

List of tables

Page

No

Table 2.1: Reduction in operational efficiencies of some of the Thermal Power

Stations in Lebanon

15

Table 3.1: Benefits of prescriptive approach to different stakeholders 21

Table 3.2: International Best Practices 22

Table 1-3: Institutional options for enforcing building codes 32

Table 1-1: Maximum lighting power allowance through building area method 44 Table 1-2: Maximum lighting power allowance through space function method 45

Table 1-3: Minimum COP values for HVAC systems 46


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Acknowledgments The report has benefited from extensive review and observations of Ashok Sarkar, Simon Stolp (the World Bank), and Pierre El Khoury, Rayan Slim, Rani Al Achkar, Bernard Champanhet (LCEC) In addition to this, invaluable inputs were received from Lena Dergham, Jawad Abi Akl (LIBNOR), Adel Mourtada, Samir R. Traboulsi (LGBC), Raid Assaf (ASHRAE Lebanese Chapter) Rabih Khairallah (President of Mechanical Consultants Engineers) and Awena Lebeschu (IFC). Sharique Ahmad and Ankit Gupta (PricewaterhouseCoopers) contributed to some of the graphics used in the report.


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Abbreviations

APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

ASE Alliance to Save Energy

ASHRAE American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers

BEEC Building Energy Efficiency Code

CDM Clean Development Mechanism

CDR Council for Development & Reconstruction

COP Coefficient of Performance

DSM Demand Side Management

EDL Electricitie Du Liban

EE Energy Efficiency

ESCOs Energy Services Companies

GEF Global Environment Facility

GWh Giga Watt hour

HCP Higher Council of Privatization

HERS Home Energy Rating System

HVAC Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning

IEA International Energy Agency

IES Illuminating Engineering Society

IRI Industrial Research Institute

LAS League of Arab States

LCC Life Cycle Cost

LCEC Lebanese Centre for Energy Conservation

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

LIBNOR Lebanese Standards Institution

MDG Millennium Development Goals

MENA Middle East and North Africa

MEW Ministry of Energy & Water

MW Mega Watt

NEEAP National Energy Efficiency Action Plan

OEA Order of Engineers & Architects

PPP Public Private Partnership

REEEP Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership

RICS Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors

SWH Solar Water Heating

TSBL Thermal Standards for Building in Lebanon


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UNDP United Nations Development Program

USAID United States Agency for International Development

VAT Value Added Tax

WB World Bank

Executive summary

Lebanon is working towards medium term reconstruction, recovery and reforms program to

align itself with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Recovery and reconstruction

was one of the prime representations of the country at the Paris III conference in January

2007.

The Government elect (since November 2009) has adopted a policy note and an action plan

in order to increase cost effective reliable availability of electricity in the country.

One of the major requirements for reliable supply is timely capacity addition to meet the

growing demand; the flip side is that new investments can happen subject to operational

efficiency and profitability of the entity responsible for supply of electricity in the country.

The country has not witnessed increase in electricity tariff for more than a decade although

the cost of import of fossil fuels (used for electricity generation) has increased by more than

300% which has severely impacted the operational margins of Electricitie Du Liban (EDL).

Although international community has offered assistance to Lebanon in revival of its

electricity sector, there has been an overarching requirement of considering environment

performance of the system at par with reliable availability for consumption.

There are two possible approaches that can help curb the emissions as well as add to the

energy security of the country:

- Addition of new generation capacities with better performance (low GHG emission)

and /or induction of renewable energy facilities

- Reduction in consumption of energy in certain target sectors (Energy efficiency)

Building sector consumes a major portion of electricity in any country (around 40% in

Lebanon) with modest recoveries and performance control over the equipments

implemented and used in the building establishments unless specific performance standards

are adopted at country level.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), through the funding from Global

Environment Facility (GEF) executed the project for development of Thermal Standards for

Buildings in Lebanon (TSBL) between 2002 -2005.

The major activities under this funding initiative were:

- Establishing climatic zones in the country

- Carry out economic feasibility study of energy efficiency interventions in the

buildings along with energy analysis

- Development of thermal standards for various kind of buildings


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- Development of technical guide and software tool for practicing engineers and

implementing agencies

Along with this, a major portion of the funding was used for capacity building, stakeholder

consultation, technical workshops and conferences along with specific studies and

development of regional coordination.

The thermal building standards developed as an outcome of this study could not get

implemented in Lebanon for various reasons. In the year 2010, the construction sector

licensing body, the Order of Engineers and Architects (OEA), through French Agency for

Environment prepared a revised version of the thermal standards for buildings in Lebanon

and approached Lebanese Standards Institution (LIBNOR), the statutory entity for

standardization, for adoption in the country.

The adoption / implementation of thermal building standards require:

- Relevance of the standards for the growing building sector in Lebanon

- Modalities of implementation of standards

- Stock taking of concerns of stakeholders

- Roadmap for short and medium term and integration with the existing laws and

legislations in the country.

The World Bank (WB) in conjunction with the Lebanese Centre for Energy Conservation

(LCEC), and as part of a broader program support for energy efficiency in Lebanon decided

to bridge the gap between the TSBL and its actual implementation through this assignment

“Lebanon: Thermal Building Standards Review and Implementation Plan”, which may in-

turn outline the fitment of the thermal standards and actual requirements / preparedness of

the implementation structure in the country.

This assignment has following inter related objectives:

- Address fundamental requirements for an effective implementation of TSBL in

Lebanon

- Review of the thermal standards developed in 2005 and 2010 and report their

appropriateness for implementation and defining areas in which standards must be

updated

- Help prepare Lebanese institutions and allied stakeholders for a successful

implementation of a thermal building standards program by identifying barriers to

implementation and developing the roadmap to address these issues.

During the course of development of assignment objectives, it was deliberated that

implementation of TSBL in its present form may not be sufficient to meet the objectives of

the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) which details out various energy


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efficiency measures for the country with ambitious target of 1.4 mtoe over 20 years [NEEAP

2010].

It is therefore proposed to develop a prescriptive code for the country so that energy

efficiency can be incorporated in the ongoing and near future construction. This prescriptive

code can be used in short term and add minimum efficiency levels of equipment in the

current thermal standard. In the medium term the performance based Building Energy

Efficiency Code (BEEC) can be developed and implemented. Simultaneously efforts can be

made to transform the market to take over from the present condition to matured

international best practices.

This study has thus been expanded from comparison of the two TSBL (2005 and 2010) to

proposing a roadmap for the country to graduate to a comprehensive building code.

The roadmap for BEEC in Lebanon has been proposed considering the fast pace

implementation / construction of new buildings in the country vis-à-vis the availability of

resources, tools and techniques and preparedness of the country to switchover from the

status of limited regulation in terms of building Energy Efficiency (EE) to a performance

based BEEC.

The possible energy savings through efficient building envelope range between 10 – 50%

depending upon the building size, climate, internal load and allied parameters. Usually in

large buildings, the energy saving potential through building envelope is only upto 20%

whereas additional energy saving potential of similar magnitude can be obtained through use

of efficient lighting, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and Solar Water

Heating (SWH) systems. Hence, the scope of elemental BEEC is proposed to include

requirement of efficient lighting, HVAC and SWH systems along with building envelope.

Short Term Road Map

For an initial period of two years, the short-term roadmap has been proposed with a target of

implementing an elemental BEEC to capture immediate opportunities of improving energy

efficiency in building sector. For this purpose, the approach for modifying the existing TSBL

(2005 and 2010) for inclusion of prescriptive requirements for energy efficiency lighting,

HVAC and solar water heating system have been presented in this report. To begin with,

elemental BEEC may be adopted for public / Government buildings and later may be

mandated for all the buildings.

Medium Term Road Map

It is proposed that after first two years, staged replacement of the prescriptive elemental code by a performance based BEEC takes place. Similar to the staged implementation of the elemental BEEC, the performance based BEEC should also be implemented in multiple stages i.e. first for government buildings and then for all buildings. Needless to mention here that until the performance based code becomes mandatory for any


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particular type of buildings, they would need to comply with the elemental code. Thus, life of the elemental code extends beyond two years and continues till the time performance based BEEC becomes mandatory for all building types. Considering the overlap of activities for the two versions of BEEC and importance of both, the elemental BEEC and performance base BEEC; a medium term roadmap for implementation of performance based building energy efficiency code has also been proposed and presented separately in this report. The time-frame for implementation of medium term roadmap has been proposed as three years starting from the end of second year. In medium term roadmap, it is intended that the country would work towards establishment of testing facilities, policies for performance monitoring and inspection (post implementation of buildings) through trained officials and can look forward to meeting the global best practices of BEEC.

The details of the short & medium term plan can be summarized as follows:

Short Term Medium Term

Duration 2 years 5 years

Target Mandating Elemental BEEC Mandating BEEC

Purpose Quick response to market Stabilizing as per international

best practices

Feature Prescriptive approach through use of

standardized equipments (Standards &

labelling program of LIBNOR)

Performance based approach

with actual quantification of

efficiency improvement –

whole building performance

evaluation

The implementation of BEEC would also result in direct reduction of primary and secondary

energy consumption. The present Kyoto regime permits development of such initiatives as

candidate Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) opportunities which can help overcome

the investment barriers and reduce payback period by providing direct returns to the

investors through transaction of Green House Gas (GHG) emission reductions. The

possibility of development of CDM projects for building efficiency gains projects is also

covered in this report.


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1. RATIONALE AND SCOPE OF ROADMAP FOR BEEC

1.1 Rationale

Lebanon was involved in a long civil war until 1990 followed by regional and national

instability that has resulted in a rather neglected growth of energy sector. The country is

majorly dependent on service sector activities with energy intensity of 0.20 toe / $ 1000

which is about 33% more than the global average. [Isabella 2011]

Lebanon is highly dependent on service sector, recovering from war and is banking on the

reconstruction of infrastructure along with a spur in new construction activities. In addition

to this, the country is dependent on fossil fuel for more than 95% of its electricity demand

with inefficient generation facilities that can meet around 60% of the demand of its 4.2

million people [Isabella 2011].

It is therefore imperative that energy conservation and efficiency gain activities are carried

out to arrest wastage and reduce dependence of the country on import of energy (electricity)

and fossil fuel. Recently, the Government of Lebanon has taken up an ambitious plan of

increasing its Renewable Energy share to 10% by 2013 [Isabella 2011]. In addition to this,

additional capacity of about 600 MW is proposed for implementation.

The proposed new capacity addition, both in the form of renewable energy as well as

conventional generation will take its own course of implementation; whereas careful

attention to the Demand Side Management (DSM) can also add to the efforts in increasing

electricity availability within Lebanon. DSM in building sector would require addressing the

four phases shown in Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1: Phases of Demand Side Management (DSM) in building sector

A very careful planning is required to ensure that limited resources are devoted to the

highest-priority, highest-impact actions in the near term while laying the groundwork for

longer-term improvements. The planning is therefore required to take the investment of

time and resources consumed in development of TSBL (2005 and 2010) to a logical

conclusion through development and implementation of building code.

It is of utmost importance that the planning is in tandem with the pace of construction and

developmental activities that the country is witnessing. A detailed performance based

building code might take considerable time in development, implementation and acceptance

by market players. A rather smart approach should be to look at the available resources, time

and goal at the same time and execute the plan accordingly.

PLANNING

IMPLEMENTATION

MONITORING

REVIEWING


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It is always easier to adopt deemed savings by use of equipments with benchmarked

performance than to measure actual performance due to limited availability of technical

expertise as well as equipment for measurement. With availability of standards (with

LIBNOR) for performance of various building equipments such as solar water heaters,

compact fluorescent lamps, air conditioning units, refrigerators, electrical and gas water

heaters; it is easier to develop a philosophy for building performance evaluation through

equipment benchmark standards.

Once the short-term goals are achieved with prescribed measures, and the systems are

established to evaluate and revisit the achievements, a rather thorough approach for

performance based building code can be implemented to device the techniques for better

penetration and enhanced results.

The globally practiced approach, with slight modifications to suit the requirements of

Lebanon, is therefore proposed to form the basis for development of a holistic BEEC with

initial emphasis on quick turnaround through prescriptive code followed by performance

standards for buildings.

With respect to Lebanon:

- 2003 onwards development of TSBL is taking place, it is time to move from just

the building envelope to BEEC.

- Refurbishment as well new construction activities are happening all over the

country, marking a change in the building sector and its participation in the

growth of the country.

Lebanon has well established setup of statutory entities such as LIBNOR with operational

insight on issues pertaining to performance standardization, which can be leveraged during

the course of development of performance standards for buildings with reasonable assurance

and controls.

1.2 Goal

Lebanon passed Law 462 in September 2002 to regulate the power sector. The primary

objective of the law was to establish independent statutory bodies / regulatory commissions

to detail out strategy for energy conservation as well as increased share of renewable energy

in country. The law was reviewed and amended in November 2006 with a new law 775 to

permit Independent Power Production (IPP) for personal use. The revised law 775 has not

addressed the issue pertaining to legal framework for private sector players in electricity

generation which is responsible for meeting more than 33% of electricity demand through

backup operations. It is important to note that none of the two laws were actually

implemented.

Lebanon has not added new electricity generation facilities in past 15 years although a steady

increase in demand ranging between 3 to 8% has been recorded. The resent estimates of the


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line ministry (MEW) indicate a shortage of 700 MW in country. To further aggravate the

situation, the building sector is witnessing a spur in reconstruction activities as well as new

constructions resulting in increased demand of electricity, which is essentially been supplied

at a subsidized rate in the country.

Lebanon being a part of League of Arab States (LAS) may consider aligning itself with larger

interests of the region. The European Commission along with LAS has developed the

framework of Arab EE Directive with participating countries to set EE targets and assign

public entities to draw a three year NEEAP [NEEAP 2010]. Under this framework, the

overall national indicative target for building sector has been kept at 5% reduction in growth

rate beyond the existing average baseline consumption of 5700 GWh.

The proposed target requires serious measures towards setting up standards for the existing

and new buildings, to identify acceptable performance levels for building envelope as well as

for equipments used within the structural framework of buildings.

This assignment is therefore to review the existing thermal building standards for Lebanon

and finalize a roadmap for their adoption as an integral part of building approval procedures

in the country.

1.3 Scope

The original scope of the assignment was:

Reviewing existing thermal standards developed in 2005 and 2010 and either ratifying

these standards or defining areas in which standards must be updated;

Identifying and outlining any factors related to establishing thermal standards for new

buildings, including categorization of standards and application for different types of

buildings (residential, commercial, etc), and legal and regulatory structure to promote

adoption of TSBL that has not been considered in past studies.

Reviewing existing thermal standards, as appropriate, in light of changed fuel and

electricity production costs, and changes in building design and construction practices

and energy utilization;

Developing roadmap for the implementation of a Thermal Standards Program for new

buildings in Lebanon, including consideration of legal and regulatory requirements for

mandatory adoption of thermal building standards;

During course of review of the existing thermal building standards (2005 and 2010) and

comparison with international best practices, it was deliberated that targeting building

envelope may not bring in intended efficiency gains and thus instead of developing a

roadmap for induction of TSBL in the building approval process, a roadmap for prescriptive

BEEC followed by performance approach should be looked as the revised scope.


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2. CURRENT STATUS OF ENERGY/THERMAL STANDARDS IN LEBANON

2.1 Lebanon Energy Scenario

Lebanon is dependent on import of fossil fuel for generation of electricity; almost 95% of the

electricity generated in the country is either supplied by EDL or through local backup

production. Although the country is nearly 100% electrified, the country sustains 40% of the

day through various backup arrangements.

In addition to the in-house production, the country relies on imports from within Middle

East & North Africa (MENA) region, with major imports from Syria, Egypt and a small

portion from Jordan. The contracts with Egypt and Jordon are essentially for surplus

electricity which is supplied to Lebanon during off-peak hours. Since August 2010, Lebanon

is facing problem with imports from Egypt, whereas early this year Jordon suspended supply

to Lebanon due to disruption of regional gas pipeline.

To further aggravate the situation, it has been observed that the operation efficiencies as well

as plant availability of two of the generating facilities have gone down to 60% and 54%

respectively .

Table 2.1: Reduction in operational efficiencies of some of the Thermal Power

Stations in Lebanon

Plant Nominal

MW

Operational

2004 (MW)

Operational

2008 (MW)

Percentage

reduction to

nominal

Retirement

Zouk 607 520 365 40 2015-22

Jieh 346 295 187 46 2010-14

Hrayche 75 60 - - 2022

Source: [El-Fadel 2009]

In addition to the significant gap between generation and demand, the electricity sector is

also observing high transmission and distribution losses, approximately to the tune of 15%

and non t3echnical losses of about 17.8% [El-Fadel 2009].

The total installed capacity in the country is 2312 MW (as per 2009 data). The electricity

demand in the country is approximately 15000 GWh against which EDL was able to supply

11522 GWh. The balance has been partially met through backup generation [Isabella 2011].

The electricity tariff in the country has not changed for more than a decade; the last tariff

fixation was carried out on the 1996 oil price (import at $ 25 / Barrel) with delivery tariff of $


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0.094/kWh against the average landed cost of $0.17/kWh to EDL. EDL is thus operating

through subsidies.

The focus should therefore be on:

- New capacity addition through conventional as well as renewable energy sources

- Tapping of energy efficiency opportunities within operational setups / sectors

with residential consumers consuming the subsidy

- Better regional coordination for a phase change from present electricity imports

to electricity exchange among the participating countries in the region. Aligning

the country with developments taking place in the region and actively

participating in the opportunities of international cooperation to develop long

term strategy for sustainable development including opportunities to develop

candidate CDM project for possible additional revenue stream through

transaction of emission reduction.

The Ministry of Energy & Water (MEW) has developed a policy paper in June 2010 with 10

strategic initiatives to augment power sector indicating a 3 – 4 years time frame for the

turnaround.

2.2 Institutional Framework

Lebanon has following entities responsible for institutional framework for energy sector:

The Ministry of Energy & Water

(MEW)

The MEW is the line ministry responsible for decisions pertaining to the sector growth as well as existing operational framework

Electricitie De Liban (EDL)

It the sole electricity generating entity in the country

Council for Development & Reconstruction

(CDR)

It was established in 1977 under the ministry of planning with responsibility of large scale reconstruction and developmental projects in the country

Higher Council of Privatization

(HCP)

It has been established as an authority in charge of planning and implementing the privatization program and its relevant operations

Lebanese Centre for Energy

Conservation (LCEC)

It is a national organization affiliated to the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water. LCEC addresses end-use energy conservation and renewable energy at the national level. It supports the Government of Lebanon to develop and implement national strategies that promote the development of efficient and rational uses of energy and the use of renewable energy at the consumer level


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2.3 Regulatory Framework

The regulatory framework for implementation of policy directive for voluntary as well as

compliance for built space is present in Lebanon with various statutory bodies both under

the government / line ministries as well as independent entities like the OEA with

appropriate powers to deliver the intended output from this sector.

It is envisaged that for induction of BEEC, strengthening of regulatory framework is required

in order to:

- Integrate BEEC in the licensing / approval framework for buildings

- Understand and apply the BEEC in correct manner for both retrofit as well as new

constructions

- Monitor actual performance and impose penalties for non-compliance

In addition to this, the regulatory framework may also consider role of third party

independent agencies to validate and certify the performance of buildings as well as the

equipment used in it. Globally, it is observed, that public private partnership (PPP) approach

has worked successfully in achieving desired results.

2.4 Major Efforts and Achievements

The development of thermal building standards in Lebanon has been one of the major works

carried out targeting building sector to achieve intended results of energy conservation.

Through this important initiative, some of the key tasks completed with respect to buildings

in Lebanon were

- The study of climatic zones was carried out and completed

- The building envelope performance indicators for specific climatic zones were

established through simulations

- Energy analysis and feasibility of sample buildings


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- Technical guide and software tools developed with a proposal for voluntary

implementation for 5 years followed by mandatory compliance.

- About 2000 professionals were reached out to share the results of this initiative

- Incentives proposed for adopting TSBL in the new building law.

- Establishment of LCEC

Since its establishment LCEC has institutionalized national efforts to:

- Improve and raise awareness of energy efficiency in the main sectors of the

economy

- Encourage the use of renewable energy technologies through technical and policy

support

- Provide reliable data on energy demand patterns and distribution

Further, in its agenda, LCEC intends to check the growth of energy demand in various

sectors with measurable and sustainable global benefits in terms of long-term GHG

emissions reductions, which will contribute to the mitigation activities within the country.

LCEC is investigating the possibilities of GHG reduction by:

- Providing businesses and the public sector with expert advice, finance and

accreditation

- Stimulating demand for energy efficiency and renewable energy products through

developing national awareness campaign

- Developing energy efficiency standards and labels

- Creation and support of Energy Services Companies (ESCOs)

- Establishing partnerships with public and private sectors

- Representing Lebanon in international energy efficiency and renewable energy

associations

- Providing a national energy database

- Promoting the CDM for carbon offsets

Lebanon has also fixed up targets under the NEEAP. These targets have been fixed in line

with the European Commission Directive (2006/32/EC). The first NEEAP for 3 years has

commenced from 2011 and will continue until 2013. The planned measures cover following

areas:

1. Ban on import of incandescent lamps in Lebanon by year 2012. The initiative will

result in saving of 1401 GWh.

2. Adoption of Energy Conservation Law and institutionalization of LCEC.

3. Promotion of decentralized power generation through RE sources like Solar PV and

Wind for residential consumption. A capacity addition between 50 – 100 MW is


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planned to be carried out by 2015.

4. Implementation of Solar Water Heaters in residential sector with a possible savings

of more than 300 GWh / year.

5. Implementation of efficient public lighting system with a possible savings of about 6

GWh/year.

6. Implementation of 60 to 100 MW of Solar energy and 100 to 200 MW of wind in next

5 years.

7. Hydro capacity addition to the tune of 100 MW by 2015.

8. Development of projects around other non-conventional technologies including but

not limited to Geothermal and Waste to Energy.

9. Establishing Building Energy Code to save about 16000 GWh in next 20 years

10. Promotional financing mechanisms for EE technologies and initiatives.

11. Awareness and capacity building for EE.

12. Setting up of Energy Service Companies and promotional activities for procurement

of EE equipments.


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3. FEATURES OF EFFECTIVE BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY CODE(S)

3.1 Building Energy Efficiency Code

The BEECs were introduced in most of the developed countries for residential and non-

residential buildings since the first oil crisis in the mid 1970s. These codes are mandatory in

several countries. In some countries, the energy efficiency codes have been integrated in the

building codes and in some other countries, these codes are standalone. In most countries,

these codes have been formulated at the national level and enforced at the local level. The

following sections have been essentially drawn from the World Bank report –

‘Mainstreaming Building Energy Efficiency Codes in developing Countries’. [WB 2010].

3.1.1 Scope

The BEECs primarily address new construction but some of the codes are also applicable to

extension and alterations in existing buildings with some renovation. The BEECs principally

cover two aspects:

1. Thermal performance of the building envelope

2. Energy efficiency of equipment and devices installed during building construction

The energy efficiency of the equipment and devices can be determined either by BEECs or by

separate energy efficiency standards for appliances

3.1.2 Compliance Approach

Based on the compliance approach, the BEECs are often categorized as prescriptive or

performance based.

Prescriptive approach

The prescriptive approach is generally component specific and give the minimum

performance levels for various components. In case of envelope components such as

roof, wall, window, the maximum U factor is provided. For HVAC systems, service

water heaters and lighting systems, requirements are given for sizing and minimum

energy efficiency values.

For developing countries, especially, those which are introducing energy efficiency

codes, following benefits can be achieved by adopting simple, prescriptive and

component performance based BEECs:

o Gradual market transformation with stronger supply chains capable of meeting energy efficiency requirement

o Building up of compliance enforcement capacity


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Table 3.1: Benefits of prescriptive approach to different stakeholders

Stakeholders Benefits

Designers and builders compliance simpler to understand and execute

Product manufacturers a firm baseline for their product development or

retooling their product lines

Enforcement system checking and inspecting prescriptive

requirements to help put in place fundamentals of

the compliance process

All and others Better understanding of energy efficiency features

expected in a building

Performance based approach

According to [WB 2010], generally the performance based approach refers to

specifying the annual level of overall energy consumption (energy budget) in the

targeted building and the methodology to calculate the sub Energy budgets of

different energy uses regulated by the BEEC, such as space conditioning, lighting,

and service water heating.

Performance based compliance approach provide more flexibility in building design

and equipment selection as compared to prescriptive based approach. However,

this requires more skills and sophistication for code compliance.

3.1.3 Adoption Approach

Based on the preparedness of a country, BEECs can be adopted as mandatory or voluntary.

Mandatory BEECs

If a country has some existing structure of codes like building structural/fire codes,

mechanical codes, and electrical codes and also has the infrastructure to implement

those codes, the BEEC can be adopted as mandatory. The mandatory codes yield

better compliance rates leading to more energy savings.

Voluntary BEECs

The BEECs can be adopted as voluntary till there is sufficient preparedness in terms

of involvement of stakeholders. Voluntary BEECs generally have low compliance.

In both the approaches, many BEECs have certain mandatory measures.


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3.2 International Best Practices

Fourteen international best practices, as compiled from various sources, are listed in the

Table 3.2. The best practices are categorized into three aspects:

Technical scope of codes

Mechanism for implementation and enforcement of codes

Code implementation support

Table 3.2: International Best Practices

3.2.1 Technical Scope of Codes

1. Whole building scope

One of the very prominent and clear best practice that has emerged after studying

various reports is that the codes that include building systems in their scope in

addition to the envelope, achieve a higher level of overall energy efficiency than those

that only address single systems such as building envelope alone. It has been

identified that doing so not only captures most of the energy savings opportunities,

but also proves to be cost effective. A code that sets strict efficiency requirements for

HVAC systems in the absence of reducing energy leaked through the envelope will

not be cost-effective, overall, to the owner. The same is true if the code sets stringent

requirements for the envelope without specifying HVAC efficiency requirements.

As per the report “Can building codes deliver energy efficiency? Defining a best

practice approach” [RICS 2008], the code should be performance-based and should

take the form of an integrated energy calculation that includes the demands

generated by the building fabric and its occupants upon all the fixed building services,

and the performance of the systems that satisfy those demands. It should include all

energy supplies to the building. The wide scope and flexibility of this structure allows

changing energy policy priorities to be reflected without changing the basic structure:


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for example by changing the relative weights applied to different energy supply

sources.

Further, [RICS 2008] makes no recommendation about the common metric into

which each consumption is converted as this will depend on the energy policy

priorities of the implementing government or authority. At the moment climate

change is a key policy driver in many countries, but this has not always been so and

may not always be so. Other possibilities include primary energy, or might prioritize

electricity or imported fuel consumption.

According to the report prepared by the Building Codes Assistance Project of the

Alliance to Save Energy – ‘Building Energy Codes Best Practices Report for APEC

Economies’ [ASE 2009], among the APEC countries Australia, Canada, Hong Kong,

Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States all set energy codes

which cover most systems. Typically, codes cover the envelope, lighting, HVAC,

service water heating, and electrical power.

2. Addressing climatic variation

According to [ASE 2009] the code should recognize different climates and need for

differences in efficiency requirements. The World Bank working paper [WB 2010]

emphasizes that greater attention should be given to development and

implementation of appropriate BEECs in warm-climate developing countries. There

is a large gap in the adoption of BEECs between cold-climate and warm-climate

developing countries. Same aspect of climate is also highlighted in [IEA 2008].

The United States addresses 8 climate zones in the residential and commercial

energy codes. Climatic differences are contained together within the prescriptive

requirements, and updated together.

3. Addressing residential and commercial buildings

Codes that do not address all major building systems lose opportunities to save

energy, but so do codes that cover only part of the building sector. As per [ASE 2009]

and [IEA 2008], code requirements typically have differences between low-rise

commercial, multi-family housing, public and private, and the type of commercial use,

so it is important to assess the construction market in order to target energy

conservation efforts where they can have the greatest impact.

According to [ASE 2009] the following APEC economies all have building energy

codes for construction in both their commercial and residential sectors: Australia,

Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines,

Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, and the United States.


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4. Specific calculation structure

On the basis of various studies related to building energy efficiency codes, following

three practices are identified with respect to specific calculation structure:

1. Integrated energy metric should be compared with that of a reference

building

2. There should be a single calculation procedure for integrated energy

metric for ease of compliance

3. Generic targets in kWh/ m2/yr are good for existing buildings and

should be based on measures data

The study [RICS 2008] states that as best practice, the calculated integrated energy

metric should be compared to that of a reference building of the same size and

geometry but with defined elemental properties, such as thermal resistance of

envelope elements, boiler efficiencies. These elemental properties should be clearly

defined and should allow the reference building energy metric value to be calculated

without further input.

With this convention (and without the use of general ‘improvement factors’) a

designer and regulator knows that satisfying all the elemental requirements will

automatically meet the calculated target. Therefore, in practical terms, the regulation

appears to be identical to one based on elemental values, but retains the flexibility of

an integrated calculation.

The study further shows that a single procedure ensures consistency of calculation

and removes the risk of market competition for ease of compliance between rival

procedures. Alternative calculation procedures may be allowed but should be subject

to extensive checking for consistency with the preferred method. The compliance

target for integrated procedures can be set either using a general consumption

intensity, typically kWh/ m2/yr, for different types of building or with a customised

target that reflects the calculated consumption of a reference building of identical size,

shape and use to the actual building. Simpler methods assign points to different

features rather than applying an explicit calculation.

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Regulations may have prescriptive

requirements for some features – for example air-tightness – and performance limits

on others – such as summer overheating. Elemental methods often include trade-off

rules, for example to allow lower insulation levels in some elements to be offset by

higher ones elsewhere. Integrated methods commonly include limits on the

performance of individual elements.


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Further, [RICS 2008] states that generic targets are typically expressed in kWh/

m2/yr with different target values for different building types, such as offices, schools,

and sport halls. Ideally such targets should be based on measured performance of a

representative sample of buildings, though this is obviously impractical for new

buildings. They are conceptually straightforward, but in practice it is difficult to

derive targets that are reasonably equitable between different buildings of apparently

similar types. For example, ‘hotels’ might be a single classification, but different

hotels provide different facilities and serve different markets. Put another way, a

generic target will result in different elemental requirements for buildings that do not

precisely match the standard building configuration.

A single target value is probably unrealistic, and even multiple classes of, for instance,

hotels will not completely deal with the issue. Customized targets are based on a

reference building that allows the energy target to reflect the particular mixture of

activities within the building. The reference building has the same size and geometry

as the actual building but each element has a standard level of performance. Thus, in

the reference building, U-values of envelope elements are fixed – as are the

efficiencies of boilers. In this way, a building containing a specific mixture of

activities is compared with one with identical use. The impact of some types of data

error, such as physical dimensions, is alleviated because the same error is applied to

both the actual and reference buildings. This is particularly useful when the method

is applied to existing buildings, for which data quality is likely to be relatively poor.

With careful design of the process, it is possible to combine the advantages of both

approaches.

The elemental performance levels set for the reference building of an integrated

method comprise a set of requirements that guarantee compliance. Therefore, there

is no need to carry out the calculation for a building that complies with all the

elemental requirements. Only if the designer chooses to take advantage of the

flexibility offered by the integrated approach is a calculation needed.

5. Calculation procedure

As per [RICS 2008], there should be a single recommended calculation procedure

which should be inherently flexible but should have a user interface designed for

regulatory purposes, rather than general design purposes. A single procedure ensures

consistency of calculation and removes the risk of market competition for ease of

compliance between rival procedures.

General design interfaces are unnecessarily complicated for regulatory purposes.

Specifically-designed interfaces should be easier to check and are likely to be less

prone to user error.


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3.2.2 Mechanism for implementation and enforcement of codes

1. Regular updating of BEEC

Some governments only periodically update their building energy codes while others

have a process in place for regular improvements. An automatic update ensures the

code will continue to evolve and reflect changes, requirements, clarifications and new

opportunities to increase energy efficiency.

According to [ASE 2009], as energy codes become outdated, drifting away from

common practice and even farther from innovative building solutions, they quickly

lose their effectiveness. It is important that codes reflect cost-effective energy-saving

practices and products and keep up with market developments. If not, builders and

contractors who pursue least-cost construction options will continue to prevent a

portion of the building market from improving.

According to [WB 2010], the BEEC development and revision cycle as shown in

Figure 3.1 is complex, quite lengthy, and costly. In some developing countries, it has

been supported through funding from bilateral and multilateral development

agencies.

Figure 3.3: BEEC development and revision cycle [WB 2010]

1.Policy goal for BEEC

2. Survey local buildings,

benchmarking, construction

material market

3. Technical, energy economic analysis

to estimate the energy savings/ cost

effectiveness

4. Code document drafting

5. Development of compliance forms/

procedures, guidebook and administrative

protocol

6. Technical and capacity building public awareness

7. Evaluation of energy savings and

effectiveness of BEEC


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2. Staged implementation

As per [RICS 2008], Building Energy Codes that do not include an integrated

calculation procedure should be designed to be steps towards such a structure. The

recommended integrated calculation structure is only practicable given an adequate

level of understanding and training amongst designers, builders, and those who must

enforce the code. This will not always be present, and elemental codes – perhaps

including provision for some trade-offs may be as far as it is reasonable to go.

It is desirable to move to an integrated calculation when circumstances allow and this

possibility should be borne in mind when introducing elemental codes.

The documents further suggest a typical development sequence of building energy

regulations:

a) Elemental thermal requirements

b) Add trade-offs between elements

c) Fully integrated calculations

d) Extension to energy performance rating

From the review of various codes covered under international best practice study, it

has been observed that several revisions of energy codes have been carried out in

order of increasing sophistication. In any particular country, this typically represents

a historical sequence that reflects changes energy policy concerns: for example

developing from concerns about the availability and price of oil and gas; towards

global environmental concerns. The increasing complexity is only feasible with a

parallel increase in the level of understanding amongst designers and builders, and a

well-developed and increasingly costly infrastructure to educate and police the

regulations.

In practice the position of an individual country in the sequence seems to be

primarily determined by this level of supporting infrastructure more than by

differences in policy drivers. Most countries have taken several decades to move

through this sequence and many regions of the world are still in the early stages of

code development.

3. Mandatory compliance

As per [ASE 2009], a voluntary code is much like a voluntary program, without financial

incentives, recognition, or any of the other typical elements found in these programs. The

intent of codes to set a minimum baseline for new construction also implies that the level

of efficiency is such that it is in the best interest of all citizens.


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[IEA 2008] also highlights importance of mandatory compliance of BEEC. It states that

“Because the efficiency of a new building will influence its energy consumption until

renovation or even the whole lifetime, the decisions taken during design and

construction will influence decades of building use. Lost opportunities in the

construction phase will lead to increased costs if done at a later stage and can wildly

inflate the running costs for future users. While individuals continue to determine much

about a building’s fate, the energy efficiency of a new building should not be viewed

only as a matter for individual choice but as a more collective issue, influencing society

at large and a future generation of building users”.

According to [RICS 2008], as a general principle, mandatory minimum performance

levels should reflect an assessment of the balance of costs and benefits to society,

including external costs. Typically, codes reflect common practice, as well as materials

and equipment that are readily available. The justification for mandatory codes is that

there should be a societal benefit that would not be gained in the absence of legislation.

The fundamental justification for minimum standards is to require people or

organizations to take steps that they might not take voluntarily. This lack of action may

be due to ignorance, or because the benefits do not accrue to those who have to take and

pay for the actions. Typically, this is because the benefits are societal rather than

individual.

From an economic perspective, the compliance levels should reflect best estimates of

whole-life costs and benefits to society as a whole. Buildings have long lives and so the

costs and environmental impacts inevitably depend on uncertain estimates of the future.

These may be unrecognized or incompletely recognized by the market place – and hence

form a justification for regulation.

4. Thorough enforcement procedure

In general, code compliance is viewed as a serious problem. There are many strategies for

enforcement along with some essential elements. As per [ASE 2009], a review of the

design plans to check for code compliance catches problems before construction and can

facilitate low cost fixes. Additional site inspections during construction are essential for

checking on the quality of installation and the accuracy of following through on design

details important to efficiency and the code requirements. In addition to inspectors who

know how to inspect for efficiency, the building sector must also know how to

demonstrate compliance. Clearly defined policies/tools for demonstrating code

compliance are essential. Importance of thorough enforcement procedure has also been

identified in [IEA 2008], [WB 2010] and [REEEP 2010].


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5. Penalties for lack of compliance

Several APEC economies impose penalties for noncompliance with building energy codes.

Penalties for not complying with the energy code can include stopping construction,

withholding permits, levying fines and even imprisonment [ASE 2009], [IEA 2008].

According to [ASE 2009], the Building Construction Authority in Singapore operates

under the Ministry of National Development and is accountable for building regulation

enforcement. Non-compliance with the Building Control Act and subsequent regulations

results in a significant penalty– an individual is found to be guilty of an offense and can

be fined or imprisoned for up to six months. Continuing failure to comply may result in

additional fines.

6. Track compliance rates

Unless code compliance is measured, it is difficult to make improvements, understand

where gaps exist in education, and account for related energy savings. According to [ASE

2009], in China, as in many large countries, local governments have the responsibility for

adopting national codes. City governments are in charge of enforcing the requirement for

designs reviews and site inspections. Since 2005, these must be carried out by a certified

independent organization. If this process is not complied with, construction will be

prevented or suspended, if already started. If the building is complete and not in

compliance, it will not be allowed to be sold or used.

Under Japan’s Energy Conservation Law - 2005, a mandatory report is required to be

submitted on energy conservation to local authorities on all new construction, additions,

alterations, major repairs, and remodeling for homes and buildings over 2,000 square

meters. Penalties are incurred if the project is not compliant; however, the process does

not involve site inspections. The submission rate is reported to be 100% by the Ministry

of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport and compliance is reported to have gone up

between 2000 and 2005. Further, [ASE 2009] mentions that in Korea, building owners

must submit an energy-saving worksheet signed by a licensed professional, such as

architects and mechanical and electrical engineers, for approval. This office has the

option to audit the buildings after construction and revoke the permit or order the

building to be rebuilt if elements of the energy-saving worksheet have not been

implemented.


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Policy Initiatives Implementation tools

•Appliance Standards•Building Energy Codes

•Labeling Programmes•Appliances

•Energy Rating•Financial Incentives

•Recognition Programmes

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

3.2.3 Code implementation support

1. Code training and certification

As per [ASE 2009], there are no examples found to demonstrate required training or

certification on the energy code for building officials or builders and design

professionals. However, there does appear to be training available in many countries.

Training may be helpful at several levels involved in the implementation of code

including but not limited to building designers, architects, professionals for building

services such as lighting, HVAC. In addition, separate training programs for officials

involved with evaluation and permission related processes is required for better

implementation.

The report further says that in some countries, induction of the code and related

skills in the academic curriculum has helped a great deal in developing trained

manpower.

2. Voluntary high performance incentive programs

As per [ASE 2009], countries that have building energy codes but are interested in

achieving additional cost-effective energy savings can adopt advanced code

amendments or voluntary high performance incentive programs. Another powerful

strategy for reducing energy use in buildings is combining energy codes with

voluntary programs such as ENERGY STAR, Home Energy Rating System (HERS),

or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) systems. The code

establishes a bare minimum for energy efficiency while the program encourages

innovation and provides incentives for better performance.

Figure 3.4: Role of voluntary and mandatory programs for energy efficiency [Concept -

ASE 2009]


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3. Demonstration projects

As per [RICS 2008], and [REEEP 2010], programmes should demonstrate the

feasibility of buildings that exceed current regulatory minimum performance levels.

This is required to build industry confidence by ensuring that the technical feasibility

and cost of higher level of performance have been properly and practically explored

before making them mandatory.

Although integrated calculation methods can alleviate the costs of substantial

changes in requirements, it is preferable to demonstrate feasibility and provide time

to allow the construction industry to become familiar with new demands before they

become mandatory. This will reduce the risks associated with new techniques.

3.3 BEEC Development and Enforcement

3.3.1 Code Development

Code development is the process of updating energy codes to match advances

in building science and construction practices. Developing a BEEC is an

elaborate process requiring a variety of data and analyses. It is critical that

building energy code provisions are consistent and conflicts between codes

are minimal. Four issues need to be considered for the development of a

BEEC [WB 2010]:

1. Decide whether the code should emphasize simplicity (and thus

easier application) or provide for flexibility to allow designers and

architects to find effective ways to meet the code requirements. In

new code developments that cover all new buildings, often both

prescriptive and performance based compliance paths are introduced,

allowing designers to choose. Especially for smaller, less complex

buildings, the simpler prescriptive path is generally preferred.

2. The code needs to be technically accurate. The prescriptive and

performance compliance options should be roughly equivalent, so that

one does not become a loop hole. Also, for energy calculations to more

closely reflect reality, code requirements should take into account

design flaws, such as thermal bridges due to metal framing around

windows, metal studs in walls, and projecting concrete balconies.

3. The code needs to take into account the local availability and costs

of equipment and materials.

4. The code requirements should be beneficial for society as a whole.

This means that any additional costs of implementing the necessary


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measures, plus the costs of any supporting programs are balanced by

energy savings and other benefits over the lifetime of the building, if

not less.

3.3.1 Code Enforcement

Enforcement is the process that building inspection departments undertake to

ensure that site plans and construction follow the previsions of the energy

code. Without a significant emphasis on enforcement, compliance diminishes,

and the outcome is always the same: new building or renovation projects that

fail to realize their full potential for energy savings and the myriad benefits

that go along with them.

Enforcement Options:

Even though most countries do not integrate the BEEC into the general building

code, according to [WB 2010], most experts agree that the enforcement of BEECs

should be integrated into the regular enforcement system for the general building

code with plan review and inspections as part of the routine construction process.

This will, however, be effective only if there is a sufficient number of well trained code

enforcement staff in addition to compliance manuals, forms, and software. Separate

enforcement would require the build-up of a separate enforcement infrastructure

that would be even costlier and could easily double the number of inspections that

need to be done before a building is allowed occupancy.

Table-3.3 presents various key features, requirements and implications related to

enforcement of BEEC through three institutional options.

Table 3-3: Institutional options for enforcing building codes (Source: [WB 2010]

Adapted from BRE (2008), p. 29 (based on Maine Public Utilities Commission

(2004))

Government Agency Private Third Party Self-certification to Owner or Public Agency

Key features Government department or agency wholly responsible

Private third party is certified by government

Builder provides compliance statement to owner or government

Support Infrastructure needed

Government inspectors Trained and certified third-party staff; come training of public sector staff if spot checking

Policing of compliance statements (unless it is left to owner to complain); perhaps certification of builders


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Cost to government High but may be recovered from builder

Moderate Low. Moderate if builders are certified

Cost of owner/developer

Low unless agency charges

High Low

Information and infrastructure needs

Trained government assessors

Trained private assessors; Certified processes

Knowledgeable builders and owners. Energy labels and certificates for buildings. Some trained public-sector staff if statement are policed

Noncompliance risk Low, provide adequate funding

Low. Third party depends on certification for income (but also on certified builders)

High, unless owner places high value on energy efficiency. Moderate if self-certification to government. Lower if builders are certified

Examples United States; prevailing option

France, Mexico, China (with some public oversight), some in United Kingdom, some in United States, pilot in Turkey

Germany (to owner)

According to [WB 2010] almost universally, the main reasons cited for lack of

enforcement are high enforcement costs and under resourcing of public agencies,

including for staffing and staff training, inspectors’ lack of qualifications and

specialist knowledge, and finally, the perception that the energy saving building

regulations are not as important as safety related regulations.

The solutions proposed for better enforcement of BEECs are quite similar in different

regions of the world, including the following:

Impose political energy savings or CO2 reduction targets on all levels of

government to heighten the importance of energy efficiency matters.

Provide sufficient resources for enforcement by government agencies, with

budgets supplemented by utilities, carbon finance, and other interested

parties.

Make specialist training available for code officials and all trades involved in

building issues, with budgets supplemented by utilities, carbon finance, and

other interested parties.

Establish a system of accredited third party enforcement, possibly in

conjunction with government spot checking and significant sanctions against

fraudulent approval.


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Provide information and incentives to builders and homeowners. Consider

penalties for non compliance in the longer term.

3.4 Energy Efficiency Governance

As per [IEA 2010] Energy efficiency governance is the combination of legislative

frameworks and funding mechanisms, institutional arrangements, and co-ordination

mechanisms, which work together to support the implementation of energy efficiency

strategies, policies and programmes.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) conducted a global review of many elements of EE

governance, including legal frameworks, institutional frameworks, funding mechanisms, co-

ordination mechanisms and accountability arrangements, such as evaluation and oversight.

The research tools included a survey of over 500 EE experts in 110 countries, follow-up

interviews of over 120 experts in 27 countries and extensive desk study and literature

searches on good EE governance. This study has identified three main aspects of energy

efficiency governance: enabling frameworks, institutional arrangements and co-

ordination mechanisms. Each aspect includes specific activities that contribute to an

overall system of good EE governance.

Figure 3.3: Energy Efficiency Governance

a. Enabling frameworks

Enabling frameworks confer authority, build consensus, attract attention to

and provide resources for EE policy implementation. Important enabling

Energy Efficiency Governance

Implementing agencies

Resourcing requirements

Role of energy providers

Stakeholder engagement

Public Private Sector Co-operation

International assistance

Institutional arrangements

Laws and decrees

Strategies and action plans

Funding mechanisms

Enabling frameworks

Governmental Co-ordination

Targets

Evaluation

Co-ordination mechanisms


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frameworks include laws and decrees, strategies and action plans and funding

mechanisms. In many countries, laws and decrees (or directives and

proclamations) provide for other governance mechanisms, such as

implementing agencies and funding and co-ordination mechanisms.

Strategies and action plans comprise the second enabling framework. Some

countries use national strategy formulation or an action planning process to

engage stakeholders, build consensus and enable energy efficiency measures

to be taken. Sometimes the strategy formulation process serves other

functions, such as identifying the need for new laws and new institutions.

Funding mechanisms are the last – and perhaps most important – enabling

framework. Experience from around the world shows that access to adequate,

stable and dedicated funding sources is critical for the development of EE

organisations and for the professionals that carry out policy implementation.

b. Institutional arrangements

Institutional arrangements constitute the second pillar of energy efficiency

governance. This review describes six main types of institutional

arrangements: implementing agencies, resourcing requirements, energy

providers, public-private sector co-operation, stakeholder engagement and

international development assistance. Collectively, these arrangements reflect

the broad range of actors that play leading roles in EE policy implementation.

Resourcing requirements are an important consideration in making sure that

implementing agencies have the financial and human resources needed to

assume their policy implementation responsibilities.

Many types of organisations can be implementing agencies: government

energy ministries, specialist clean-energy agencies, energy providers, private

and state-owned enterprises and non-profit organisations. There are both

advantages and drawbacks for each of these organizational types and the

choice of implementing agency should reflect historical development, country

context, alignment with sector and EE objectives and the existing institutional

map. Public-private sector co-operation ensures that government policies take

full advantage of the resources and commercial acumen of the private sector

and allows public funding to be leveraged through private investment. Such

co-operation also supports market transformation strategies, as new demand

for higher efficiency products needs to be satisfied by new products,

developed and manufactured by the private sector. Stakeholder engagement is

important for building political consensus on policy and implementation

strategy and for ensuring that policy deliberations consider a diverse range of

perspectives and practical experiences. International development assistance

has proven important in establishing EE implementing agencies and in

creating other EE governance mechanisms in developing countries.

c. Co-ordination mechanisms


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Co-ordination mechanisms include governmental co-ordination mechanisms,

targets and evaluation. Creating co-ordination mechanisms both within and

across levels of government directly influences the quality and effectiveness of

EE policy outcomes. Intra-governmental co-ordination helps avoid overlap

and duplication, and allows informed discussions about how best to

implement policies. Co-ordination across levels of government enables

national governments to devolve implementation responsibility to local

authorities, while retaining overall programmatic control. Targets are useful

co-ordination mechanisms because they help to motivate policy

implementers, track implementation progress and identify the need to make

mid-term policy adjustments. Targets can provide a concrete basis for

developing multi-year programmes, mobilising funding and identifying

agency staffing needs. Evaluation is critical to good EE governance, as it

serves to test planning assumptions, monitor overall results, compare

programme performance, fine-tune implementation processes and

incorporate the lessons learned into future policies and programmes.

Evaluation also provides the foundation for oversight and accountability

arrangements


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4. BARRIERS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF BEEC

The operational building energy efficiency codes (BEEC) require continuous updating along

with continuous monitoring of enforcement to transform a country to achieve energy

modesty in construction sector.

Implementing bodies / statutory agencies in various developing countries with recent history

of implementation of BEEC have identified following key operational shortcomings

These barriers have been essentially qualified on the grounds of:

- Political barriers

- Complexity of procedures

- Market barriers

4.1 Political Barriers

It has been observed that countries with overall supervision / government oversight on the

construction sector as well an established supply chain in terms of engineering capabilities

have seen tremendous growth in building compliance rate to requisite performance

standards set out in a country.

Lebanon was facing political challenges in past, but now it is observed that the country is

aligning itself towards economic growth coupled with sustainable development. Various

recent policy developments at the MEW indicate a sound political will to bring about the

above said goals.

4.2 Complexity of procedures

The BEEC with performance-based compliance are more complex and require technical

knowhow to understand, implement and monitor. The key of compliance, of a BEEC,

remains with statutory bodies like municipal corporations beyond the construction where

technical expertise is largely present with the architects and engineers.

With respect to Lebanon, it will be possible to achieve near expected results in a shorter span

with minimal complexity, whereas once the systems and policies are in place, the country can

graduate to performance based standards for the country.

4.3 Market Barriers

It is well established fact that subsidies distort the market and long term success is always

achieved through market driven mechanisms; still in most of the cases, new policy initiatives

are supported by incentives and penalties till the market matures. The policy makers should

look at the need to move from bad subsidies to good subsidies.


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The government of Lebanon as part of LAS-EC framework, has put forth an ambitious target

of reducing energy consumption in all sectors with building sector as one the prime area for

developmental targets. Although EDL is not able to provide electricity against demand and

backup arrangements are the only source for electricity for 40% of the demand, a subsidized

tariff is one of the major barriers for the market to look and adopt EE measures.

A country in which service sector is delivering a major portion of the GDP, the cost of energy

is generally passed through to the buyers of services, whereas in manufacturing sector,

investment on energy has a direct impact on the final product. This difference could be

considered as additional bottleneck for EE adoption. EDL and the policy makers will have to

play a major role by creating an infrastructure for reliable electricity availability to help

market players look at investments in EE measures in building sector.

Adoption of thermal standards for buildings or a holistic BEEC would require availability of

tools and testing procedures at the disposal for statutory entities, through third party service

providers as well as in-house facilities within the government framework. This would be

required to establish checks and balances in the form of financial gains to the investors

complying to codes as well as penalties for non-compliance.

To sum up, it can be represented as:

There is a good potential for implementation of BEEC in Lebanon as

political will, technical skills as well as growing market would help sustain

such initiatives.

Support from developmental setup of Europe and the World Bank is

available for taking up both advocacy initiatives as well as implementation

plans.

Prescriptive approach is the simplest approach for implementation

especially for small buildings which are going to contribute most on under /

non compliance because of smaller individual consumption of energy.

LCEC as well as other organizations such as OEA, LIBNOR, IRI, LGBC are

already active in the field of energy efficiency. LCEC is also operating at the

grass-root level through programs like CFL distribution.

Following action can further help overcome the barriers:

Need to develop compliance infrastructure can be carried out in medium

term to support the larger goal of meeting / exceeding international best

practices. In due course, the building rating system should be the goal for

the country.

Need infrastructure for training installers, engineers and for accrediting

assessors and inspectors.

Give market time to anticipate to a new standard and prepare itself for


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future

Make sure all stakeholders are skilled to ensure proper implementation and

this should apply to even the investor / owner of the building to have basic

understanding of EE and its benefits.

Government can promote energy efficiency program in buildings through

different incentive for all stakeholders (owners, consultants, producers,

etc.) in forms such as grants, loans, tax reduction and recognition

certification

Raising awareness and improving technical assistance and capacity building.

Improving legal and macroeconomic framework conditions for EE and

renewable energy technologies specifically for the technologies with

possibility of integration with building envelope

Expanding development partnerships with the private sector (especially

Banks).

Need for establishing certified accredited laboratories.

High profile demonstration pilot projects are necessary to propel the

community.

Establishing data base on locally available natural and ecological building

materials.

While proposing the roadmap, care has been taken to suggest activities and initiatives that

help overcome the above mentioned barriers.


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5 APPROACH OF ROADMAP FOR IMPLEMENTING BEEC IN LEBANON

The roadmap for BEEC in Lebanon has been essentially proposed considering the fast pace

implementation / construction of new buildings in the country vis-à-vis the availability of

resources, tools and techniques and preparedness of the country to switchover from the

status of no regulation in terms of building EE to a performance based approach.

The existing thermal buildings standards in Lebanon require revision in some of the sections

in order to align it to the international best practices. Details of these revisions are provided

towards the end of this report in Appendix-2. Integration of thermal standards in present

form will have a positive yet limited impact on the EE gains in the building sector, whereas

with use of available standardized equipments used in the buildings, a further reduction in

energy consumption is possible. It is thus advisable to look at the development of a

prescriptive BEEC for the country for quick adoption and easier inspection, which could

result in better performance.

The present procedure of approval for building construction requires further strengthening

of the technical skill sets for performance based inspection of the buildings.

In medium term, it is targeted that the country would work towards creation of testing

facilities; policies for performance monitoring and inspection through trained officials and

can look forward to meeting the global standards of BEEC.

The short term target of prescriptive code followed by medium term performance based code

is thus suggested in the roadmap for Lebanon. The activity schedule for next 5 years has been

prepared and presented in Section 10. Figure 5.1 presents the overview of approach that has

been followed for proposing the overall roadmap for BEEC.


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Figure 5.1: Roadmap for implementing BEEC in Lebanon

t=2 Years t=5 Yearst=0 Years

Time

Existing Stage

(Merging of Parallel

Various efforts)

Experienced Stage

(Market preparedness, Capacity Building,

Machinery for implementation)

Advanced Stage

(Realisation of Energy savings, self

sustaining BEEC)

Development

&Implementation of Elemental BEEC

Development &Implementation of

Detailed BEEC

or

Past

Efforts

Development

of Elemental BEEC Stage

1Stage

2Stage

3

Implementation of Elemental BEEC

Development

of Detailed

BEEC Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

Implementation of Detailed BEEC


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6. DETAILS OF SHORT TERM ROADMAP

The approach and major milestones starting from development of code to compliance are

shown in the Figure-6.1 given below.

Figure 6.1: From code development to compliance [WB 2010]

The roadmap for Lebanon has been proposed following similar approach.

6.1 Code development

It is proposed that the existing TSBL is modified and converted into elemental BEEC. While

arriving at the values for various elements such as R value of insulation, SHGC of glass and

efficiencies of lighting and HVAC systems, detailed payback analysis should be carried out

using energy simulation of typical building typologies. The proposed modifications are

detailed in the following sections.

6.1.1 Modification of existing Thermal Standards (TSBL) into Elemental

Building Energy Efficiency Code

a. There are two versions of the Thermal Standards for Buildings in Lebanon, namely

TSBL 2005 and TSBL 2010. Comparison of both the versions with international best

practices suggests that some modifications needs to be carried out and the existing

recommendations of TSBL are to be revisited before converting either of them into a

code.

Review and comparison of TSBL 2005 and TSBL 2010 is given in Appendix-1,

Comparison of TSBL 2005 and TSBL 2010 with international best practices is given

in Appendix-2; and recommendations for adopting TSBL 2005 and TSBL 2010 for

developing elemental code and BEEC are given in Appendix -3

b. TSBL 2005 and 2010 cover only the building envelope. As per the recommendations

given in Appendix-3, it is recommended to add prescriptive requirements for

minimum efficiency in lighting, HVAC equipment and solar water heating. This will

help in developing elemental building energy efficiency code. Approach for specifying

the minimum requirements for lighting, HVAC equipment and solar water heating

systems is given in the subsequent sections.

There are two alternatives for bringing in such a feature:


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Option-1: LIBNOR defines/modifies the standards for lighting energy efficiency

defining minimum energy efficiency of lamps, and maximum permissible Lighting Power

Density based upon international practices. In that case BEEC may consider referring to

the standards of LIBNOR as requirement.

Option-2: The requirements for the new standards may directly be advised in the BEEC

by the committee, stating that in future, if LIBNOR releases any standard in this regard,

stringent of the two may be considered.

A technical committee comprising of representatives of major stakeholders and subject

matter experts may be constituted to develop the elemental BEEC. The Figure 6.2 below

depicts the scope of work for the technical committee.

Figure 6.2: Scope of Committee for development of Elemental BEEC

TSBL Revised

Lighting Efficiency Standards

HVAC Efficiency Standards

Solar Water Heating Standards

Committee for Elemental BEEC

Elemental BEEC


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6.1.2 Specifying Lighting Efficiency through Lighting Power Density

Energy consumption for internal illumination of buildings using artificial lighting is one

major end use of electricity. Energy saving can be ensured by use of efficient fixtures and

efficient lighting design. To allow flexibility to the designers, it is suggested to specify in the

BEEC, maximum interior lighting power allowance in buildings. Internationally there are

two commonly used methods for defining this allowance: building area method, and space

function method. In the building area method, aggregated lighting power density of the

whole building is not to exceed the LPD values prescribed in a table for various types of

buildings. Table-6.1 shows examples of such values following the building area method.

In the space function method; lighting power density for individual type of area within a

building are specified. The maximum allowable Lighting Power for the building can be

calculated by summing the maximum lighting power for each space where maximum lighting

power for each space can be calculated by multiplying the area of the space by

corresponding LPD as given in the table 6.2. Table 6.2 shows example of such values

following the space function method. It may be noted here that the values provided in Table

6.1 and 6.2 are indicative only and are given as an example. Such target values may be

decided by the committee working on the elemental BEEC based upon the values followed in

various standards such as ASHRAE, EN etc.

Similar tables can be specified in the elemental building energy efficiency code of Lebanon.

Table 6-1: Maximum lighting power allowance through building area method

Building Area Type LPD (W/m2) Building Area Type LPD (W/m2)

Automotive Facility 9.7 Multifamily 7.5

Convention Centre 12.9 Museum 11.8

Court House 12.9 Office 10.8

Dining: Bar lounge/Leisure 14 Parking Garage 3.2

Dining: Cafeteria/Fast Food 15.1 Penitentiary 10.8

Dining: Family 17.2 Performing Arts Theatre 17.2

Dormitory 10.8 Police/ Fire station 10.8

Exercise Centre 10.8 Post office 11.8

Gymnasium 11.8 Religious buildings 14

Health Care clinic 10.8 Retail 16.1

Hospital/ Health care 12.9 School/University 12.9


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Hotel 10.8 Sports Arena 11.8

Library 14 Town hall 11.8

Manufacturing Facility 14 Transportion 10.8

Motel 10.8 Warehouse 8.6

Motion Picture Theater 12.9 Workshop 15.1

Table 6-2: Maximum lighting power allowance through space function method

Space Function LPD(W/m2) Space Function LPD(W/m2)

Office-enclosed 11.8 Library

Office-open plan 11.8 Card File & Cataloguing 11.8

Conference/Meeting/Multipurpose 14 Stacks 18.3

Classroom/Lecture/Training 15.1 Reading Area 12.9

Lobby 14 Hospital

For Hotel 11.8 Emergency 29.1

For Performing Arts Theatre 35.5 Recovery 8.6

For Motion Picture Theatre 11.8 Nurse station 10.8

Audience/Seating area 9.7 Exam Treatment 16.1

For Gymnasium 4.3 Pharmacy 12.9

For Exercise Center 3.2 Patient Room 7.5

For Convention Center 7.5 Operating Room 23.7

For Religious Buildings 18.3 Nursery 6.5


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For Sports Arena 4.3 Medical Supply 15.1

For Performing Arts Theatre 28 Physical Therapy 9.7

For Motion Picture Theatre 12.9 Radiology 4.3

For Transportation 5.4 Laundry – Washing 6.5

Atrium-first three floors 6.5 Automotive -Service Repair 7.5

Atrium-each individual floor 2.2 Manufacturing

Lounge/Recreation 12.9 Low Bay[<8m ceiling] 12.9

For Hospital 8.6 High Bay[>8m ceiling] 18.3

Dining Area 9.7 Detailed Manufacturing 22.6

For Hotel 14 Equipment Room 12.9

6.1.3 HVAC system efficiency

It is suggested to specify minimum energy efficiency performance levels for the heating

ventilation and air conditioning systems. This can be achieved by specifying the minimum

Coefficient of Performance (COP) for cooling and heating equipment of each type. Designer

can have flexibility for selection of equipment; however, for any type of equipment, the COP

should meet the minimum requirement as per the elemental building energy efficiency code.

Sample table for the purpose is given below as Table 6.3:

Table 6-3: Minimum COP values for HVAC systems

Equipment class Minimum

COP

Minimum

IPLV

Test

Standard

Unitary Air Cooled Air Conditioner ≥ 19 and <40

kW [≥ 5.4 and < 11 tons]

3.08 ARI210/240

Unitary Air Cooled Air Conditioner ≥ 40 and < 70

kW [≥ 11 and < 20 tons]

3.08 ARI340/36

0


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Unitary Air Cooled Air Conditioner ≥ 70 kW [≥ 20

tons]

2.93 2.99 ARI340/36

0

Unitary Water Cooled Air Conditioner < 19 kW

[<5.4 tons]

4.1 ARI210/240

Unitary Water Cooled Air Conditioner ≥ 19 and <40

kW [≥ 5.4 and < 11 tons]

4.1 ARI210/240

Unitary Water Cooled Air Conditioner ≥ ≤ 40 kW [≥

11 tons]

3.22 3.02 ARI210/240

Since a large number of buildings use heating systems, similar to the minimum COP of

cooling systems, minimum efficiency of heating systems such as gas heaters and electric

heaters should also be defined in the code.

6.1.4 Solar Water Heating

There is already a program going on in Lebanon for promoting use of solar water heating

systems in buildings. It is recommended that the requirements of solar water heating

systems considering the type of usage, climatic conditions, no. of floors etc. may be added in

the elemental BEEC as requirement. Individual houses and low rise buildings would have a

possibility of replacing a larger fraction of the conventional water heating systems by solar

water heating; whereas, due to limited roof availability, such possibility for high rise

buildings would be very limited. To address this difference, and to set realistic targets,

following points may be considered:

- Setting up different minimum requirements for residential buildings as per

the no. of floors

- Promoting use of common solar water heating facilities in high rise residential

buildings, in place of individual family owned systems.

- Setting up separate minimum requirement of solar water heating system

capacity for commercial buildings using hot water or steam to support various

processes such as laundry, cooking, dish washing.

- Promoting use of concentrating solar collectors in commercial buildings using

hot water and/or steam, such as hotels, hospitals etc.

Further, it would be worth mentioning here that considering the use of roof for solar water

heating systems, and also due to economic considerations, solar photovoltaic systems have

not been recommended for inclusion in the elemental BEEC.


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6.1.5 Covering major retrofitting and extension of existing buildings:

Since there are large numbers of existing buildings in Lebanon with a need to reduce their

energy consumption, it is proposed that retrofitting of lighting, HVAC systems, or change in

envelope parts such as glass may be covered under the BEEC. The retrofitted parts/systems

should be compliant with the code. Similarly, extension of buildings should also be required

to meet the requirements of BEEC.

6.1.6 Mechanism for short term code development

Since attempts are already underway for making the LCEC as the National Energy Agency in

Lebanon, and they have experience of developing TSBL 2005, it is recommended that LCEC

takes lead for this purpose and coordinates this activity. On behalf of Ministry of Energy and

Water, LCEC should also act as custodian of the BEEC in the country.

It is suggested that representatives of the various stakeholder groups should be involved in

defining the requirements of lighting and HVAC system in the elemental building energy

efficiency code. Following major stakeholder groups may be involved for this purpose:

a. Research organizations: to incorporate the trends and technology development

b. Suppliers of lighting equipment: to incorporate availability of equipment in market

c. Suppliers of HVAC equipment: to incorporate availability of equipment in market

d. Professional bodies: to incorporate the preparedness of market forces such as

professionals, designers, manufacturers, installers

e. International experts: to incorporate the international trends and prevailing norms of

energy efficiency worldwide

6.2 Adoption

As per the report ‘Energy Efficiency Governance, IEA 2010’ and the ‘National Energy

efficiency Action Plan for Lebanon, LCEC 2010’ it has been noted that through the adoption

of the Energy Conservation Law, the process of institutionalization of the Lebanese Center

for Energy Conservation (LCEC) as the national energy agency for Lebanon has initiated in

2010 as a regulator for energy efficiency in Lebanon. It is therefore recommended that at

country level, the LCEC should be given the responsibility, powers and provided with funds

through budget/taxes/international funding agencies for implementing this roadmap in

collaboration with other agencies as per their domain and expertise.


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Once the BEEC is submitted by LCEC to the Ministry of Energy and Water, the Ministry may

consider forwarding it to the Council of Ministers as a bill for adoption for Stage-1:

Mandatory for government buildings. In order to make the BEEC mandatory for all

buildings, the council of Minister may consider forwarding the bill for approval by the

parliament for adoption at the national level.

The adoption of BEEC by parliament would authorise the local bodies to enforce the

recommendations of elemental code. Without having the code adopted, the local bodies,

would not have the necessary authority to force the builders and developers towards such

code. Adoption of code also motivates the market and other agencies such as educational and

research institutes, professional bodies to enhance their efforts in this direction.

Adopting the BEEC would ensure that all builders in the area are building to the same

standard. Without having the code adopted by government, some builders/developers might

cut corners to provide a competitive advantage.

It is recommended to have adoption and implementation of the code in phased manner as

shown in figure 6.3:

Stage-1: Mandatory for Government / Public buildings

Stage-2: Voluntary for all buildings

Stage-3: Mandatory for all buildings

Figure 6.3: Phased implementation of the elemental code

Elemental BEEC

Mandatory for

Government buildings

Stage 1

Voluntary for all

buildings

Stage 2

Mandatory for all

buildings

Stage 3

Approval from council of Ministers

Approval from Parliament


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The phased adoption and implementation would help in the following ways:

In the initial phases, there is relatively less ‘know-how’ about new materials and

technologies. Also, the materials and technologies are relatively expensive in the

beginning. Wider use of technology brings in economy of scale and helps in

reducing the costs. Implementation of code on government building would avoid

passing on such load of extra cost directly to the public. If required, extra funding

for implementation on government buildings may be arranged through

international agencies or extra budgetary provisions within the country.

While the code is mandatory for government buildings in the first phase, it can be

voluntary for other buildings. Some highly motivated and aware builders might

come forward as early adopters of the code. Sometime doing so helps improve

their corporate image. This may be treated as second phase and may start slightly

after the first phase is launched.

Once there is sufficient ‘know-how’ and the awareness building efforts have been

done, the third phase can be started that included making the elemental code

mandatory for all the buildings coming under the scope of the code.

6.3 Implementation

Although it is recommended that LCEC on behalf of Ministry of Energy and Water should act

as custodian of the BEEC and be responsible for implementation of the entire roadmap,

LCEC should coordinate various activities in association with other agencies/institutions as

per their respective domain and expertise for successfully capturing the opportunity of

energy saving in buildings.

a. Awareness workshops:

Awareness about the elemental BEEC, its benefits, implications should be spread through

organizing awareness workshops throughout the country, targeting different stakeholder

groups. In the successful implementation of the BEEC, outreach plays a very important role.

It is necessary that all the stakeholder groups, including developers, and building owners

understand the intent of the code and get convinced about various requirements.

Such workshops can be organized by entities such as OEA, and other similar organizations

Print and electronic media can be used to spread the awareness about the benefits of the

code to individuals and to the country as a whole.


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LCEC has been involved in increasing the awareness about energy efficiency through other

ongoing/completed programs such as SWH program, CDM etc. Their experience of

conducting awareness campaigns may be utilised to create awareness related to BEEC.

b. Demonstration project:

In addition to launching an awareness drive or campaign, following the principle of ‘seeing is

believing’, it is suggested to carry-out few demonstration projects. These demonstration

projects should demonstrate the following:

- Reduced energy saving in the BEEC compliant building

- Display of energy efficient equipment materials

- Showing the process of meeting requirements of BEEC in the design decision making

process

- Showing the process of evaluation of project for compliance checking. This would be

especially useful for the representatives of authorities who would be carrying out such

evaluations on regular basis.

Some professional body or research organization can be given the assignment of converting

the entire process starting from design stage to evaluation and release of compliance

certificate, into a case study that can be referred by designers and evaluators in future. Any

possibility pertaining to road shows may also be considered for sensitizing the market at the

grass root level.

c. Training:

For successful implementation of code it is very important that trained manpower is ready at

all levels. Large base of trained professionals who can design code compliant buildings is

strength of any country. It is equally important that training is imparted at all levels that are

involved in the process. Sometimes, lack of training starts creating a negative feeling in

various stakeholder groups that eventually becomes a barrier for implementation. It is

therefore recommended to conduct training through the following modes:

On site class room training programs

Web-based training programs

It is further recommended that first the training modules should be prepared in association

with educational institutes that specialise in imparting trainings, and preferably have

international exposure and have been involved in the process of development of code.

It has been seen that some countries even take help of international experts in developing

training modules and in conducting training programs. However, it is recommended that


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local trainers or potential trainers are utilized for this purpose with only occasional

assistance from international experts as and when required. For this purpose, as done in

several countries, first of all ‘train the trainer’ workshops are conducted that provides large

no. of trainers and help in conducting large number of training programs throughout the

country.

d. Establishing and utilizing enforcement infrastructure, tools, and

systems:

As per the international best practices, a computer based tool for checking compliance of

BEEC should be developed. There are many computer-based tools and services to help

automate and streamline the enforcement process. Some efforts have already been made in

this direction for development of a tool for TSBL 2005. It is recommended that either the

tool developed for TSBL 2005 should be modified covering modifications or extension of the

TSBL, or a new tool may be developed. This tool enables designers and professionals to

check their design specifications for compliance, as well as it assists the staff of enforcement

agency to check projects fast with a significantly reduced possibility of manual error. Besides

being technically correct and tested through variety of cases, it is recommended that such

tool should also be ‘easy to use’. For this purpose, a beta version of the tool is to be launched

first, and on the basis of comments received from prospective users, modifications should be

made to release the final version.

e. Implementation support mechanism: query, clarification etc.,

Since BEEC would be a new document for most of the professionals in Lebanon, it is quite

likely that professionals may not fully understand the specifications and requirements. A

possibility of requiring issuance of post-release clarifications cannot be ruled out. To cover

all such issues, a government agency, preferably LCEC or equivalent neutral body that has

been involved with development of code, should be given responsibility to act as nodal

agency for answering queries of end users and for releasing interpretation related

clarifications.

f. Market transformation

Despite having a good code and skilled manpower being present, a supporting market

providing required material and equipment at competitive prices is one key factor for success

of BEEC. In most cases, new and efficient products face challenge from existing inefficient

products through availability of material, availability of spares, and price. In order to curb

the barriers for a healthy market for efficient materials and products, following actions may

be considered:

Launching standard and labelling program


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Import duty exemption on efficient products and equipment

Waiver of sales tax or any other tax on efficient product

Discouraging use of inefficient products, through media, notifications etc.

Awarding/rewarding efficient products with subsidies, rebates, discounts

Soft bank loans for code compliant buildings and standard equipment

Energy efficiency CESS: Additional tax on sale of inefficient equipment. The

income from this additional tax may be made available for supporting energy

efficiency related projects in the country

LCEC has recently been involved in market creation/transformation projects related to

solar water heating systems. Lessons learnt from that program may be utilized for

transforming the market for energy efficient equipment required for BEEC compliance.

6.4 Enforcement

Enforcement is the process that building inspection departments undertake to ensure that

site plans and construction follow the provisions of the energy code. Without a significant

emphasis on enforcement, compliance diminishes, and the outcome is always the same: new

building or renovation projects that fail to realize their full potential for energy savings.

Following building permit system already exists in Lebanon [CUB Engineering & LCEC 2011]


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Figure 6.4: Building Permit System in Lebanon

1. The Technical Department can be one of the following depending on the city/village:

a. The Technical Department in the Municipality of Beirut or Tripoli

b. The Union of Municipalities if one exists

c. The local Urban Planning department

2. The Design Drawings should be signed by an architect, a civil engineer, an electrical

engineer and a mechanical engineer. Either the architect or the civil engineer can be

assigned as project engineer.

3. Order of Engineers and Architects (OEA) of either Beirut or Tripoly

4. Concerned administration can be EDL, Civil Defense, Civil Aviation Authority

depending on the height of the building, the Ministry of Tourism, Education or

Health depending on the end-use of the building)

5. Roof casting shall only be done with signed authorization from the project engineer

When the building includes basements, the Technical Department shall check

compliance of basements with permit drawings before giving approval to start

execution of upper levels

Following procedure is proposed for enforcement of the elemental BEEC:

Conformity with Elemental BEEC for large buildings

Elemental BEEC compliance report by LCEC-OEA certified BEEC professional

Elemental BEEC compliance report with supporting documents for large buildings by LCEC-OEA certified BEEC professional

Figure 6.5: Enforcement of the elemental BEEC

It is proposed to have only the design stage approval as the requirement for

compliance. It is especially important to note that the proposed life of the

elemental BEEC is just three to four years due to the fact that detailed BEEC

would be underway, it is not practical to have pre-occupancy inspection and

approval as requirement.

Since the projects first get registered with the OEA, it is proposed that the same

agency should be entrusted with the responsibility of checking design stage

compliance of the elemental code through LCEC-OEA certified BEEC

professionals.

A separate cell may be created at the OEA, which in association with LCEC should

be conducting tests for certified BEEC professionals.

This cell may consider conducting training programs and LCEC-OEA certificate

test. These LCEC-OEA certified BEEC professionals would be recognized as third

party inspectors.

In case of small buildings, compliance report generated using the compliance

checking tool would be submitted to the Order of Engineers by LCEC-OEA

certified BEEC professionals. Such report from third party professionals would

automatically be sufficient for small buildings and no separate design stage

approval would be required from the Order of Engineers and Architects.

Random audit of some reports would be carried out in case of small buildings by

the joint committee of the OEA and LCEC, to ensure that the declarations issued

by qualified BEEC professionals are correct.

In case of large buildings, the Technical department would check entries of

compliance report prepared by LCEC-OEA certified BEEC professional through

the plans and design documents submitted at the stage of registration. It is

proposed to make declaration of conformity with elemental building code by the

technical department necessary for issuance of construction permit in case of

large buildings.

The promoter/builder/building engineers should be required to declare that the building will

be made as per the documents submitted at the stage of registration. In case a deviation is

found, some provision of penalty may also be kept to discourage such mismatch. One way of

addressing this could be provision of loosing certificate for practice. In case the details used

to generate the compliance report for small building is found to be different from the actual

details, the LCEC-OEA certified professional should be losing the BEEC professional

certificate.


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6.5 Financial Estimates

Following are the indicative financial requirements for carrying out major activities of the

short term roadmap

Activity Indicative

financial

requirement

Development of elemental code

a) 5 man- months (revising TSBL; defining lighting, HVAC

standards; solar water heating requirements; compiling

elemental BEEC; 1 man month each): man-month rate: USD

10,000 per month

b) Meetings, travel and honorarium of experts for technical

committee, organizing stake holders meet: USD 50,000

USD 100,000

Awareness workshops

10 awareness workshops inviting architects, MEP

consultants, promoters/developers, govt. officials.

Two/three in Beirut and one in each major location such as:

Sidon, Zahle, Tyre, Jounieh, Baalbek, Byblos, Nabatieh .

@ USD 5000 USD per workshop:

(expenses include, printing and distribution of document,

expenses in print and electronic media, venue charges for

workshops, travel-stay etc. of experts/officials)

USD 50,000

Demonstration project (with partial support)

a) Conducting design charade: USD 50,000

(includes travel, logistics for meetings, and honorarium of

consultants, hiring international consultant)

b) Documentation: USD 50,000

(includes video recording, document development, printing

of copies for wide circulation/distribution)

c) Financial support to projects: USD 400,000 (100,000 each to

four projects, preferably in four different climatic zones)

USD 500,000

Developing the training material

a) Fee for domain experts: USD 15,000

b) Printing of material: USD 10,000

c) Web-based training material (hosting, updating, record-

keeping, developer etc.): USD 15,000

USD 40,000


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Delivering the training sessions

a) Conducting training programs: USD 5000 each, 4 nos.: USD

20,000

b) Development and printing of training material: USD 5000

c)

USD 25,000*

Preparing the procedures and tools

a) Development of tool (including maintenance, updating if

required for 3 years): USD 20,000

b) Training of tool: USD 5000 each, 2 sessions: USD 10,000

USD 30,000

Market transformation (Subsidies etc)

Publicity in print and electronic media: USD 200,000

Meeting subsidy on efficient equipment/material: USD

100,000

Subsidies to investors: USD 700,000

USD 1,0 00,000

* The training sessions can seek financial support from various players involved in supply of

building materials and equipment


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7. DETAILS OF MEDIUM TERM ROADMAP

Following the international best practice, it is recommended to develop complete building

energy efficiency code encompassing envelope, all the components and equipment used in

the building and renewable energy systems.

7.1 Development of code

The first important step for developing the code is to identify a team for framing the code. A

steering committee is to be formed to initiate the building energy code formulation process.

The committee can be given clear understanding that the proposed energy code should be

decided based on three considerations:

Their energy saving potential

Cost effectiveness of the measures suggested

Ease of compliance.

The code developers should conduct the financial payback as well as life cycle cost analysis

while working out requirements of the code. Such analysis would require knowledge and

good understanding of various economic implications in a building, time based variation in

performance of recommended equipment/material properties such as aging of cool roof

coating, fouling in HVAC equipment, and integration of real life considerations in techno-

economic analysis.

The first task of the steering committee would be formulate a work plan for developing the

code and identifying key members of its various technical committees and stakeholders in

this process. The committee should be supported from a smaller core group to form the

working group. The working groups are to be responsible for coordinating day-to-day

activities of the building energy code development on behalf of the steering committee. The

committees should involve people from research, consulting, manufacturing, promoters,

professional societies and administrative segments to truly represent all the stakeholders.

A broad group of relevant stakeholders should be identified by the steering committee to

form the Stakeholders’ Panel. This panel should include professional and manufacturers

associations, consumer groups, NGOs, central and state government bodies. They should

review the code recommendations at intermediate stages, and provide comments to the

steering committee.

Technical Committees (TCs) should be setup to provide criterion and minimum standards

for energy efficiency in the design or major retrofit of commercial buildings and provide

methods for determining compliance with them. Technical Committees would be responsible

for developing code components for the following building elements: Heating Ventilation

and Air Conditioning, Building Envelope, Lighting, Service Water Heating, Electric Power

and Distribution.


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Figure 7.1: Overall structure and working of various groups for development of building

energy efficiency code

Setting up of a National Energy Agency with statutory powers is therefore one important task

towards development of code. This agency should involve key organizations/stakeholder

groups working in Lebanon, such as the Order of Engineer and Architects, Lebanon Green

Building Energy Code Steering Committee

Senior Advisory Group

Technical Committees

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

Lighting

Building Envelope

Service Water Heating

Technical Consultants

Working Group/Coordinating Committee

Electric Power and Distribution

1.

Logistics Support Team

LCEC -National Energy Agency

Stakeholders’ Panel

Ministry of Energy and Water


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Building Council, LIBNOR, IRI, GEF, WB, International Finance Corporation,

USAID/Amideast. Representatives from research organizations, trade-associations,

professional bodies such as ASHRAE may be involved in the effort at different levels.

Once the draft code is ready, it is extremely important to circulate it among wider base of

stakeholder groups and keep it open for comments. This not only gives an opportunity to

general public to comment on strictness of the code but also help creating an acceptance and

a feeling of ownership. Issues such as cost implications and related direct as well as indirect

benefits can be discussed on public platforms to enhance the acceptability before the code is

given its final form.

7.2 Adoption

Provision should be made for regularly updating the BEEC that is especially required from

switching over from elemental code to the complete BEEC.

Due to various limitations, similar to the elemental code, it is suggested to have phased

adoption and implementation of the BEEC. Following three phases are suggested:

Phase-1: Mandatory for govt. buildings

Phase-2: Voluntary for all buildings.

Phase-3: Mandatory for all buildings.

Justification for the three phases in medium term road map is same as given for short term

roadmap.

7.3 Implementation

Although it is recommended that LCEC on behalf of Ministry of Energy and Water should act

as custodian of the BEEC and be responsible for implementation of the entire roadmap,

LCEC should coordinate various activities in association with other agencies/institutions as

per their respective domain and expertise for successfully capturing the opportunity of

energy saving in buildings.

a. Awareness workshops:

Stakeholders associated with the building sector including design, construction, and real

estate, legal, financial and property management professionals, as well as those involved

in the sale and rental of buildings should be targeted with tailored advice and technical

information on how the BEEC will impact on their particular profession. Wider

promotion and information campaigns should be launched to introduce and highlight the

benefits of BEEC to the public. It is wise to continue information activities after initial

implementation as first-time buyers and tenants enter the market continuously.

Information should be disseminated through easily accessible sources such as citizens’

advice, local authorities, real estate offices and websites.


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Easy access to up-to-date information is an important aspect of keeping industry and the

public informed.

Key steps for promoting awareness about BEEC in Lebanon:

Raise awareness among industry and the public

Ensure that all stakeholders have access to relevant information.

Develop ongoing information campaigns that target general public

Following activities are suggested for increasing the outreach and creating awareness about

BEEC in Lebanon:

Series of awareness workshops throughout the country

Advertisement campaign in print and electronic media to enhance public

awareness and benefits

Participation in related seminars/conferences/trade-shows of related stakeholder

groups

Involving national and internal celebrities, talk and promote BEEC in the country

Since this is going to be a big exercise, several organizations such as Order of Engineers and

Architects, Universities, Research organizations, and professional bodies such as ASHRAE

are to be involved in it.

b. Demonstration project:

Worldwide, showcasing the best practice and demonstration buildings has been a very

successful tool for encouraging the penetration of energy efficiency measures in the

market.

Therefore, it is suggested to have demonstration projects spread through-out the

country that:

Display the energy savings in real life situation matching with the claims made by


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the code

Display the use of energy efficient practices related to building envelope design,

use of new materials, equipment design and selection

Besides, bringing up the demonstration projects would also help through the following:

Showing the process of meeting requirements of BEEC in the design decision

making process to the building professionals such as architects, civil engineers,

lighting and HVAC engineers. This may be done through conducting the design

charades in various parts of the country involving local building professionals,

working together with national and/or international experts having good

understanding of the BEEC.

As an integral part of the demonstration projects, the evaluation process also requires

showcasing for the benefit of the officers, who would be evaluating the projects in regular

course. Hand-holding during the evaluation of initial few projects helps them overcoming

the barrier of lack of exposure to the new process.

In addition, such officers may also be sent to some other countries to witness the process of

evaluation and to discuss their doubt with their peers who might have faced similar issues

and difficulties. The Union of Municipalities may be asked to coordinate such an event.

Some professional body or research organization can be given the assignment of converting

the entire process starting from design stage upto evaluation and release of compliance

certificate, into the form of a case study that can be referred by designers and evaluators in

future. Such case studies can be given shape of a reference guide for designers and

evaluators. It is important to note that with passage of time, clarifications and

interpretations would be required, and the book of case studies, and reference guide also

needs to be updated accordingly.

c. Training:

Acquiring the necessary human resources may take time and should be started early. The

expertise of those undertaking building assessments is critical to achieve a robust and

respected certification scheme. To implement BEEC, a country needs assessors with relevant

technical experience. Most countries have a shortage of assessors and need to initiate further

training. This initial lack of expertise in the market is one of the most likely factors in BEEC

implementation delays. It is essential to undertake a review of existing construction

profession capacities and capabilities, undergraduate educational programmes and

continuing professional development programmes in order to understand what training is

necessary to provide the market with properly qualified assessors.


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Availability of expertise directly affects the standards of assessment and the quality of the

building rating programme. The extent of training resources required may be dictated by the

number of assessors needed to deliver energy certification to the market – and by the

availability of qualified experts and developed training material.

Following work is required to be taken up on priority for success of BEEC:

Development of training materials

Delivering the training to various professionals and officials

If training modules can be defined and delivered within existing training or undergraduate

programmes early in the process, this may help to ensure the availability of highly skilled

assessors by the time the scheme is scheduled to become operational. It also has the

advantage of utilising existing training accreditation and professional trainers, and may

allow for adaptation of existing training material.

It is therefore recommended to conduct training through the following modes:

On site class room training programs

Web-based training programs

It is recommended that first the training modules are prepared in association with

educational institutes that specialise in imparting trainings, and preferably have

international exposure and are already involved in the process of development of code.

It has been seen that some countries even take help of international experts in developing

training modules and in conducting training programs. However, it is recommended that

local trainers or potential trainers are utilized for this purpose with only occasional

assistance from international experts as and when required.

Following nature of training workshops would be required:

Train the trainers workshop

Train the teachers workshop

Train the evaluators/assessors workshops

Train the designers/professionals workshops for on job professionals

Training of students: professionals of future

Using the potential of internet, web-based training programs can also be launched. This

would be helpful for those who cannot spare few days out of their work for attending the

training program. Some tutorials can also be developed explaining key aspects of the code

and implementation related issues.


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The first three types of training workshops may also include organizing study trips and

exchange of experiences with other leading countries. The purpose of such activities is to

allow trainers, decision makers and key stakeholders to learn from the successful

experiences of countries that have instituted energy conservation policies and programs.

In some countries, technical educational institutes and universities have been provided with

literature related to basic fundamentals and applications related to the areas addressed by

the BEEC. Funding has also been arranged for purchase of licensed simulation software such

as Visual DoE, IES, DesignBuilder etc. Similar approach can be adopted in Lebanon to

promote understanding and development of skills among the students.

d. Development of computer tools

Use of computers at every stage of building design, system design, project management,

registration at regulatory bodies should be exploited to computerise the process through

development / enhancement of the following software tools:

Interfaces and libraries for whole building simulation tools: several tools are

already available, there is need to recognize and declare the acceptability of

simulation tools results of which would be accepted for compliance. Preference

may be given to well established and widely used tools that provide support to

users. Local interface may also be developed in local language to enhance

usability of the same.

Quick analysis tools: some application specific tools such as ‘cool roof calculator’,

‘glazing selection guide tool’ can also be developed to help selection of

specifications according to the code.

Evaluation tool for compliance: A separate tool would be required for checking

the compliance of BEEC. This tool would be useful at the enforcement agency, as

well as for independent third party assessors and processionals working in the

field to verify compliance.

It is important to note that besides being technically correct and tested through variety of

cases, such tool should also be simple to use.

It is therefore, recommended to develop computer tools of various types for assisting

designers, decision makers and evaluators/assessors of BEEC compliance. It may however be

noted here, that as of now, there is no publically available weather file for Lebanon in the

format acceptable for popularly used energy simulation tools. It will be or upmost

importance to collect data from atleast one important location in each climatic zone in

Lebanon and prepare weather data file for use in energy simulation tools.


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e. Implementation support mechanism: discussion groups, query,

clarification, appeal etc.

Since BEEC would be a new document for most of the professionals in Lebanon, it is quite

likely that professionals don’t fully understand the specifications and requirements. A

possibility of requiring issuance of post-release clarifications cannot be ruled out.

To cover all such issues, a government agency, preferably LCEC or equivalent neutral body

that has been involved with development of code, should act as nodal agency for answering

queries of end users and for releasing interpretation related clarifications.

f. Setting up test labs

BEEC specifies use of materials and equipment having certain minimum

performance level in their prescriptive approach. Even in the performance method of

showing compliance of BEEC, properties and performance indicators of materials

and equipment are required. It is recommended to set up test labs especially for

equipment and materials that are locally produced or manufactured in Lebanon.

Following needs to be ensures in this regard:

It is to be ensured that such test labs have an easy and affordable access to

producers and manufacturers.

Test labs have continuous up-gradation of facilities as per the technological

development

Test labs have some quality control and performance checks

Internationally acceptable procedures are followed for the tests

Such test labs would also be useful to launch standards and labelling program for

non-voluntary performance of equipment that may exceed the minimum required

performance level. Presence of test labs would be useful for effective implementation

of BEEC

Presently, the Industrial Research Institute (IRI), is major test lab in the country.

However, their existing focus is on safety related testing of equipment and materials.

The institute is already bringing up the facility for testing of solar water heating

systems. In order to support BEEC, addition of new facilities/labs would be required

for testing of thermo-physical parameters and energy efficiency.

g. Market transformation

Despite having a good code and skilled manpower being present, a supporting market

providing required material and equipment at competitive prices is one key factor for

success of BEEC. In most cases, new and efficient products face challenge from

existing inefficient products through availability of material, availability of spares,


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and price. In order to curb the barriers for a healthy market for efficient materials

and products, following actions may be considered:

Launching standard and labelling program

Import duty exemption on efficient products and equipment

Waiver of sales tax or any other tax on efficient product

Discouraging use of inefficient products, through media, notifications etc.

Awarding/rewarding efficient products with subsidies, rebates, discounts

To support the reduction in cost by economy of scale

h. Standards and labeling program:

Standards and labels are used to create a market pull by adopting approaches such as energy

star rating of lamps, air-conditioners and other, appliances through labeling program. More

star indicating more efficiency. Such measure is very successful in creating public awareness

about energy efficiency of lighting. Similarly, labels indicating performance of building

material and products such as fenestration would also be useful in creating a market pull

besides making the technical specifications available for compliance checking.

As per NEEAP-2010, the program for promotion of energy efficient equipment is already

going on since 2009. This initiative aims to promote the use of energy efficient equipment in

households and commercial buildings. This includes focusing on electrical equipment and

establishing a national energy efficiency standard. The program for promotion of energy

efficient equipment under the NEEAP-2010, may be strengthened and extended to provide

standards and labels for various types of equipment, materials and products required for

buildings with reference to whole building approach based BEEC.

It is further suggested that the financing mechanisms and incentives, as also mentioned in

the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Lebanon, [LCEC-2010]] are launched to

promote the use of energy efficiency. This is mainly linked to the collaborative work with the

Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Lebanon. Experience of the initiative to promote

solar water heaters in buildings and institutions in Lebanon may be used in this regard for

working out subsidies.

7.4 Enforcement

Enforcement is the process that building inspection departments undertake to ensure that

site plans and construction follow the provisions of the energy code. Without a significant

emphasis on enforcement, compliance diminishes, and the outcome is always the same: new

building or renovation projects that fail to realize their full potential for energy savings.

Enforcement systems depend on the type of building regulation that is used. If building

efficiency is a part of the general building codes and rules for buildings it will often been

forced in the same system as other requirements in the building codes. If the code is set in a

specific standard it may be decided to leave the control up to a specific system for energy


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efficiency or to combine this with other types of control. In many cases, it is up to the local

authority to control the compliance on building regulations.

Both systems have advantages; if the control is combined with that of other building

regulations this will typically imply systems to deny buildings to be taken into use or other

sanctions which also apply for safety reasons etc. But, on the other hand, if compliance is

controlled by energy efficiency specialists this may ensure that these controllers have the

necessary knowledge. In some countries control of efficiency is based on accreditation

systems where responsible experts can loose the right to construct or to apply for permits if

the rules are violated.

The existing building permit system has already been explained in the ‘enforcement’ section

of the short term roadmap.

Based upon the study of existing system, following enforcement mechanism is proposed for

the BEEC:

It is proposed to have two stage approvals as the requirement for compliance: one- design stage approval, second the pre-occupancy approval as

shown in the flow chart below.

Conformity with Performance BEEC for large buildings

Performance BEEC compliance report by LCEC-OEA certified BEEC professional

Performance BEEC compliance report with supporting documents for large buildings by LCEC-OEA certified BEEC professional

Figure 7.2: Enforcement of the performance BEEC

Request for BEEC compliance

Site inspection for compliance with BEEC

It is proposed to keep the procedure upto the construction permit same as proposed in the

short term roadmap. In addition to the design stage approval, pre-occupancy approval is

proposed as one additional requirement in the enforcement of detailed BEEC.

For the pre-occupancy approval, the following procedure is proposed:

- For small buildings, LCEC-OEA certified BEEC professionals would conduct third

party inspection and submit report to the technical department which conducts the

other inspections after once the building is ready. Approval by third party inspector

would automatically be sufficient for this purpose.

- Random audit of some small buildings would be conducted by the joint committee of

Order of Engineers and Architects and LCEC to ensure that the declarations issued by

certified BEEC professionals as third party inspectors are correct.

- For large buildings, the Technical Department would conduct inspection of buildings

and issue BEEC compliance certificate which is proposed to be a mandatory

requirement for issuance of occupancy permit.

7.5 Compliance tracking

Unless code compliance is measured, it is difficult to make improvements, understand where

gaps exist in education, and account for related energy savings. The advantage of having the

enforcement of BEEC done through local municipal level bodies is that it is relatively easy to

track compliance since they anyways keep record of the construction taking place in their

jurisdiction. Review of compliance should be done on annual basis and reasons for non-

compliance need to be discussed with stakeholder groups. This not only helps identifying the

measures required for improving the compliance rates, but sometimes, also provides

feedback for modification in the code.

In case of Lebanon, tracking of BEEC compliance may be started after completion of one

year from the time when BEEC becomes mandatory for all buildings. It may be done

through periodic survey and sampling studies conducted by independent agencies in

different parts of the country covering various types of buildings..


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8. CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM

Clean Development Mechanism is one of three flexible mechanisms under the Kyoto

protocol that permits reduction of GHG as a flexible environmental investment and credit

scheme of its kind, providing standardized emissions offset instrument, CERs.

The Intergovernmental Penal on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in its fourth assessment

that the building sector has the largest potential for significantly reducing GHG emissions

but also confirmed that the potential so identified is independent of the cost per ton of CO2

equivalent achieved.

The due diligence of the projects can be carried out depending upon the possibility of

replication and transaction expenses required for the interventions. It has been observed

that large sized conditioned spaces (essentially Government / public buildings, malls and

cinema halls) with significantly high space heating / cooling loads can consider development

of standalone CDM projects, whereas smaller interventions with possibility of replication at a

larger level may consider programmatic approach for development of CDM projects.

The CDM project cycle is detailed below in the Figure 8.1:

Figure 8.1: CDM project cycle

The building sector can essentially exploit following opportunities to develop CDM project:

Monitori

ng & Verificat

ion

PDD Develop

ment

PDD

Validati

on

Request

Registrat

ion

CDM Value

Chain

Identifying Emission

Reduction Opportunities

Delineating Project Boundary

and identification Leakage

Developing Emission

Baseline

Estimating Project GHG

Emissions

Monitoring and

Verification protocol

Assessment and Demonstration

of Additionality

Reviewing the Environmental

Impact Assessment

New Methodology

Development

Responding to queries raised

by DOE

Defending the project during

validation

Answering queries raised by

UNFCCC

Host Government

Approval

Appointment of DOE

Validation site visit

Negotiation with Buyers, ERPA

and Closure of Transaction

Preparation of Monitoring

Report

Responding to queries raised by

the DOE

Identification of Buyers, Preparation of Information

Memorandum


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Heating Ventilation and Air conditioning (HVAC)

Energy efficient lighting (Use of CFL / LEDs in place of incandescent lamps)

Thermal insulation in buildings (Glazing etc)

Building management systems (Human occupancy sensors, load management

devices etc)

Supporting devices (Variable frequency drives etc)

Development and implementation of BEEC (covering these suggested interventions) has

been advocated for Lebanon in this report and the efforts proposed to be carried out to

reduce the operational energy cost over the building’s life cycle can further be brought down

by carrying out CDM due diligence of the initiatives and registration of the projects with

UNFCCC.

The second important aspect is to consider the financial implication of developing a CDM

opportunity which would have the following important component

Advisory fee for development of Project Design Document (CDM PDD)

Designated National Authority (DNA) approval (No fee is levied at present)

Fee for validation of the PDD by UNFCCC accredited Designated Operational

Entity (DOE)

Registration fee of UNFCCC (if the estimated annual GHG reduction from the

project is in excess of 15,000 tCO2e)

Fee for verification of the project performance by UNFCCC accredited DOE

Transaction expenses (Legal & CER issuance)

Taxes (as prevailing in Lebanon)

It has been generally observed that projects / interventions with less than 10,000

tCO2e/year (CERs) are not profitable enough and do not add to the bottom-line of

investment required to develop CDM project and carry out transactions during its crediting

period at the prevailing price band between Euro 10 – 14 /CER.


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8.1 Approach & Methodology

The building sector essentially consumed secondary energy (electricity) for meeting the

equipment demand and space conditioning. The estimation of possible GHG emission

reduction for electrical energy efficiency can be attributed to the emission factor of the grid

from which the electricity is consumed and to the back-up units operating on fossil fuel.

The grid emission factor (CO2 emission) for Lebanon is approximately 0.815 kg/kWh (based

on the operational power stations in the country) of electricity whereas for fossil fuel, an

average of 2.5 – 2.75 kg CO2 /Litre may be considered for estimation of GHG reduction from

energy efficiency interventions in the buildings.

The business decision of development of CDM projects should thus be based on the back of

envelope calculations and expected price of the commodity (CER). A CER is equivalent of 1

ton of emission reduction.

The interesting observation specific to the building sector projects (whether standalone or

program of activities) is that most of them qualify under the small scale projects for which

UNFCCC has approved methodologies which can be straightaway used in development of a

candidate CDM project.

In addition to this, for specific interventions, seeking deviation in the existing approved

methodologies as well as proposing a new methodology is permitted and once approved by

the methodology penal of UNFCCC; the same may be applied for development of PDD.

LCEC is involved in distribution of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) in the country in an

attempt to reduce energy consumption in building sector; the bulb distribution projects

developed as small scale CDM initiatives in the country (after registration with UNFCCC) can

help bridge the gap between the price of incandescent lamps and CFL. It is possible to

register such projects with UNFCCC until the baseline of the country becomes CFL i.e. every

new CFL replaces a CFL.

Similarly HVAC consumes a major portion of electricity in buildings and there is a possibility

of considerable savings by improving the coefficient of performance of HVAC both in the

case of small units as well as central HVAC units for large buildings can possibly become a

good case for CDM project development.

Law 775 of the country which essentially permits IPP for self consumption may also be

developed as potential CDM projects where HVAC can be coupled with power generation

units implemented for the large building loads (cluster of buildings) and thus this efficient

form of electricity generation with almost free HVAC can become a potential project.


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8.2 Assurance of revenue

Although CDM is a flexible mechanism with voluntary participation from the developing

countries; the projects developed as CDM opportunities does not guarantee revenue

generation for the investor for the following three reasons.

Project baseline

Project additionality

Common practice

The project baseline plays an important role in estimation of the potential of GHG emission

reduction from the project against the Business-as-usual (BAU) scenario. The project

baseline is the difference between energy consumption of the base building (without EE

interventions) and the proposed building (with EE intervention). The GHG emission

reductions from the project are monitored continuously throughout the crediting period of

the project. It is important to note that CDM revenue is permitted for a fixed period (10 years

or 7 years with possibility of 2 renewals) from the date of registration of project with

UNFCCC or from the date of start of operational life of the project, whichever is later and not

for the complete life span of a building.

The additionality is another important aspect of the project wherein the EE intervention

proposed for a building / set of buildings covered in a program should have viability gap (as

compared to the BAU building). The viability gap can be established against the benchmark

returns from the investment in BAU and proposed case through financial modelling. It is

important for projects in Lebanon to carefully examine the project additionality before

attempting CDM registration because the country is dependent upon fuel imports and thus

high fuel cost can considerably reduce the investment payback making interventions viable

on standalone basis.

Common practice will have an impact on CDM registration of a project if projects of similar

nature are operating in the region without CDM revenue support. This could be detrimental

if projects with viability gap are implemented without CDM registration. If such a situation

prevails, the project is required to establish as to how the candidate project is different from

other operational projects without CDM registration.

8.3 Important aspects of CDM

CDM project registration is quite rigorous yet very transparent process and involves

representation of host country as well as third party independent validation before the

project is submitted to the CDM Executive Board with request for registration.

Lebanon ratified the Kyoto Protocol on 11 February 2007 through law 738 dated 15 May

2006. In the year 2006 & 2007, an internal desk study was conducted to establish the DNA

process in Lebanon & estimate the potential of CDM. The country adopted single ministry


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model (which is also practiced internationally) to clear CDM projects based on the

sustainable development guidelines of the country. In May 2007, MoE was appointed by the

Presidency of the Council of Ministers as the Designated National Authority (DNA) for

Lebanon.

At present the DNA in Lebanon is represented by Ms. Rola Sheikh (Department of Air

Quality, Lazarieh Centre, 8th Floor, Block A4 New P. O. Box 11-2727 Beirut, Lebanon). All

candidate CDM projects are required to be cleared by the DNA before approaching the CDM

Executive Board.

To further streamline the process in order to establish seriousness of CDM consideration, the

UNFCCC has issued guidance for developers of CDM projects to inform UN within 6 months

of start date of project activity about the proposed CDM project. This guidance applies to all

the projects conceived after 2 August 2008.

A local and global stakeholder consultation process is also being carried out before a project

is validated by a DOE. The process essentially covers the aspects around sustainable and

inclusive growth of the community along with economic activities. The local stakeholder

consultation is required to be completed before filing the PDD with the DNA and DOE

whereas global stakeholder consultation is carried out as a part of the validation exercise.

The CDM project development should be started before project implementation. Ideally the

project should be implemented only after CDM registration so as to ensure revenue stream

from transaction of GHG emission reduction. For projects with longer gestation period, the

registration of the project should get over before the commercial operation date of the

project. The average estimated registration time of CDM projects with UNFCCC is about 12

months from the date of preparation of PDD.

LCEC has informed UNFCCC about 6 projects of CFL distribution which are at different

stages of development. In addition to this, there are few private sector players developing

CDM projects from within Lebanon. A proactive approach by the investors as well as

Government can provide the much needed push in development of CDM opportunities

available in this sector.

Agencies like IFC are playing pioneering role across the global by securitizing CDM revenue

through forward transaction and upfront payment to the investor. This has been a successful

model in many countries and a win-win proposition for the investor as well as CER buyer

with risk hedging as well as liquidity in the market.


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9. CONCLUSION

To implement the comprehensive set of suggestions proposed in this roadmap, the

government of Lebanon will need to put in place a short term and a medium term plan. As

there is an urgent need for implementing mandatory codes for taping the energy saving

opportunities through covering the current construction activities in the country, this

roadmap proposes the following short term measures:

1. Modify the current TSBLs to include energy efficiency in lighting and HVAC and also

incorporate solar hot water systems. This will ensure that the new elemental building

energy efficiency code, enhancing TSBL would cover the envelope, equipment and

use of renewable energy in the scope of building scope and have more holistic

approach towards building energy efficiency. The elemental code should be

prescriptive in nature and easy to implement.

2. This elemental code can be first made mandatory in the government and public

buildings followed by mandatory status for all buildings in about 1.5 years from the

start of implementation of the recommendations of this roadmap.

While the short term roadmap is being implemented, preparations can be started for

implementation of elements of the medium term roadmap for building energy efficiency

code. The implementation of short term roadmap will bring in more awareness in the

building sector and lay down the process of enforcement of code and start the market

transformation for promoting energy efficient products in Lebanon. It will also initiate the

capacity building process among all stakeholders.

The medium term roadmap proposes to develop and implement a whole building

performance based BEEC. This will be in line with the international best practices and would

provide maximum design flexibility by offering tradeoff between all aspects of energy

efficiency in the buildings. It is proposed that all the supporting infrastructure and processes

which include but not limited to capacity building, training, testing facility, legislative

infrastructure, weather data, compliance tools, market transformation are initiated before

the comprehensive BEEC is mandated and are in place when it becomes mandatory for all

buildings in Lebanon. It is proposed to mandate comprehensive BEEC in phases and be

mandated for all the new buildings in less than five years from the start of implementation of

the short term roadmap.


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10. ACTIVITY SCHEDULE

Note: header of columns show month nos. starting from beginning of the short term roadmap

Work Element

Activity/Event

Objective/goal of activity/event

Lead

organizations

Priority for

Months

Short Medium

1-2

3-4

5-6

7-8

9-1

0

11-1

2

13

-14

15

-16

17

-18

19

-20

21-2

2

23

-24

25

-30

31-3

6

37

-42

43

-48

49

-54

55

-60

Code development

Defining Elemental Code

Revision of TSBL considering the feedback/review

To finalize the TSBL document, removal of discrepancies in previous/existing versions

LCEC

H

Extending scope of TSBL to BEEC covering lighting, HVAC, and solar hot water through simple prescriptive approach

To cover all building systems under the scope of TSBL and start moving towards BEEC

LCEC with LIBNOR

H

Action for short term

Action for medium term


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Defining full BEEC

Development of building energy code covering envelope and building services with whole building approach

To adopt whole building approach for BEEC

LCEC

H

Development of mechanism for periodic updating of BEEC

The bar for efficiency needs to be raised up periodically depending upon technological advancements, and extent of penetration

LCEC

L

Adoption

Defining/declaring mandatory status

Development of enforcement mechanism in line with existing building permit mechanism

To clearly define the procedures, guidelines, and processes involved in giving approval to any building

LCEC + OEA

H H

Approval by council of Ministers

To declare the mandatory status for government buildings

LCEC


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Approval by parliament

To declare the mandatory status for all buildings

LCEC

Implementation Declaring implementation plan stage-1:

implementation on govt. buildings

To experiment and showcase the code without direct cost to private building owners, to gain confidence/experience, to identify barriers in implementation

LCEC + Urban Dev. Dept.

M M

stage-2: voluntary for all buildings

To have smooth transition from govt. buildings to all buildings

LCEC

M M

stage-3: Mandatory for all buildings

To cover all buildings under the scope

LCEC + Urban Dev. Dept.

M M

Development of compliance checking tool for regulators

To facilitate the evaluators/regulators for checking compliance, leaving less scope for variation in interpretation of requirements, consistency in evaluation process throughout the country

LCEC

H H

Market Transformation

Incentivize sale of efficient equipment and materials

To ensure availability of products required for compliance of code at reasonable costs, to

LCEC + LIBNOR + Professional bodies + IRI

M M


80 | P a g e

discourage use of inefficient appliances/equipment

Capacity Building

development of training material

for use in various workshops, training programs for distribution to participants, and for assisting the trainers

LCEC+ prof. Bodies

H H

conducting awareness workshops

To spread the information about code, to remove mental barriers,

LCEC+ Prof. Bodies

H H

Train the trainer program

to ensure sufficient no. of trainers who can conduct training program in different parts of country

LCEC + OEA

H H

conducting training programs for designers/architects/professionals

to ensure availability of professionals, who can design buildings as per requirements of code

LCEC + OEA

H H

equipping libraries of educational institutes with relevant study

to provide good books and references for students and researcher who are future professionals

Universities

L M


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material

making simulation software available in educational institutes

making students familiar with the simulation process which is one major requirement for whole building performance method, students of today are professionals of tomorrow

Universities

L M

curriculum modification

to embibe the fundamentals, knowledge and skills required for implementation of code in the curriculum

L M

train the teachers of edu. Institutes

to enable the teachers for teaching he modified curriculum as per the requirements of code

LCEC + universities

L M

workshops for accessors, evaluators

To train the accesors and evaluators on the compliance checking tool as well as on basic concepts of BEEC

OEA + union of municipalities + urban dev. Dept.

H H


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Demonstration Projects

conducting design charades

To have live demonstration of the process of design, decision making required for compliance of code through a participative exercise

LCEC + OEA

M M

documentation of case study

To record the design evolution process, discussions, analysis and decisions at various stages of the demonstration project for wider circulation and reference for future projects.

LCEC + OEA

L M

Setting up test labs

Defining standards for testing of equipment/materials

Various standards that are to be followed for determining properties and performance indicators mentioned in the code are to be defined by local agency

LIBNOR

L M

Setting up and accreditation of test labs

Making testing facilities for materials and equipment accessible in every part of the country

LCEC + IRI

L M


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Certification of professionals

To have quality assurance mechanism on available services of professionals for code compliance

LCEC

M M

Enhancing availability of weather data/files

to provide weather date for more and more cities. In absence of this data, approximation of weather conditions through use of weather file of other cities is required.

LCEC, metrological department

L H

Establishing R&D centers in building energy efficiency

To promote local research capability, this would be helpful in upgradation of BEEC in future, find local solutions for technological requirements of the code.

LCEC + universities

L M

Enforcement Penalty clause for non-compliance

To keep a pressure for compliance of code

LCEC + urban devp. Dept. + union of municipalities

L L


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Compliance Tracking compliance rate

to get idea about ease of adoption and usefulness of BEEC

LCEC + union of municipalities

M

H= High, M= Medium, L=Low


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11. REFERENCES

[ASE 2009] Building Energy Codes Best Practices Report for APEC Economies,

Prepared by the Building Codes Assistance Project of the Alliance to Save Energy,

December 2009.

[BECA 2009] B. Shui, M. Evans, S. Somasundram; Country report on building energy

codes in Australia; United States Department of Energy, 2009

[CUB Engineering & LCEC 2011] Support to the Lebanese Center for Energy

Conservation EuropeAid /129347/D/SER/LB

[El-Fadel 2009] El-Fadel, R. H. , et al., The Lebanese electricity system in the context of

sustainable development. Energy Policy (2009), doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2009.10.020

[IEA 2008] Energy Efficiency Requirements in Building Codes, Energy Efficiency

Policies for New buildings, IEA Information paper, Mr. Jens LAUSTSEN, International

Energy Agency, March 2008

[IEA 2010] Energy Efficiency Governance, International Energy Agency. 2010

[Isabella 2011] Isabella Ruble, Pamela Nader, 2011. Transforming shortcomings into

opportunities: Can market incentives solve Lebanon’s energy crisis? Energy Policy 39

[2011] 2467-2474

[MEW 2010] Ministry of Energy and water, 2010, Policy Paper for the Electricity Sector.

Government of Lebanon [COM#1-21/6/2010] June.

[NEEAP 2010] National Energy Efficiency Action Plan, LCEC –

Lebanon, developed jointly by RCREEE and MEDEMIP. 2010

[REEEP 2010] Compendium of Best Practices, Sharing Local and State Successes in

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy from the United States. A collaborative report

by REEEP, ASE, ACORE, April 2010.

[RICS 2008] Can building codes deliver energy efficiency? Defining a best practice

approach A report for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors by the Building

Research Establishment, June 2008.

[WB 2010] Feng Liu, Anke S. Meyer, John F. Hogan; World Bank Working Paper No.

204; Mainstreaming Building Energy Efficiency Codes in Developing Countries: Global

Experiences and Lessons from Early Adopters, 2010.


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APPENDIX 1- COMPARISON OF TSBL 2005 AND TSBL 2010 WITH INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES

International

Best practices

TSBL2005 TSBL 2010 Recommendation

Whole building

scope

X It is based on thermal cooling/heating

energy requirements, and addresses

only the envelope of buildings.

It only addresses the thermal loads and

not fuel and cost of primary energy

required to meet the loads.

X It is based on thermal cooling/heating

energy requirements, and addresses

only the envelope of buildings.

It only addresses the thermal loads and

not fuel and cost of primary energy

required to meet the loads.

Both the standards don’t address the whole

building. A lot of fuel is imported in

Lebanon, electricity is subsidized and the

supply of electricity is intermittent leading

to widespread use of on-site diesel operated

electricity generators as back-up that are

usually expensive to run. The common

metric for the whole building approach

would hence be very important.

Addressing

climatic variation

√ It addresses the climatic variations.

However, TSBL-2005 does not split of

climatic zone-1 in two sub-categories.

√ In TSBL-2010, the climatic variation in

addressed. Climatic zone 1 is split as 1A

and 1B, whereas the requirements for

envelope as mentioned in the TSBL-

2010 are common for these sub-zones

are identical.

Split of climatic zone in sub-categories in 1A

and 1B to be retained as in TSBL 2010.

However, requirements for these sub-

categories should be revisited.

Addressing

residential and

commercial

buildings

√ TSBL-2005 has taken care of the

difference in requirements for

residential and commercial buildings

through providing different set of

specifications. However, only two types

of building categories have been

considered i.e. residential and

commercial.

√ TSBL-2010 has taken care of the

difference in requirements for

residential and commercial buildings

through providing different set of

specifications. However, only two types

of building categories have been

considered i.e. residential and

commercial.

It might be helpful if the standard considers

further classification such as low-rise and

high-rise.


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Specific

calculation

structure

√ In TSBL 2005, the compliance through

performance path can be achieved if the

computed annual thermal energy needs

of the proposed building is less than

computed annual thermal energy needs

of the reference building in

kWh/sqm/yr. The reference building is

similar to the proposed building except

that the building envelop components

should comply with the requirements of

the individual component approach of

the prescriptive path. The Reference

Building thermal energy usage is the

total heating and cooling energy

requirements in kilowatt-hours [kWh]

determined by the building simulation

software using the same inputs as the

reference building, including the same

weather files and fixed simulation

parameters which have been approved

by the competent Lebanese authority.

This is on the similar lines as per the

international best practices.

X In TSBL 2010, compliance through

performance path is achieved if the

computed annual specific thermal

energy needs (cooling and heating) of

the proposed building is less than

Reference annual specific thermal

energy needs [cooling and heating] of

same category of building in the

specified climatic zone (kWh/m2.year).

Further, Simulation Parameters related

to occupancy and usage of the building

are not fixed but shall be justified

according to ASHRAE Fundamentals

Book. As per international best

practices this is not very desirable in a

code, especially for new buildings. This

method is more appropriate for existing

buildings and these specific energy

targets are based on measured

performance of existing buildings.

Further, it is desirable that these

targets are different for different types

of buildings such as hotels, offices,

malls etc. TSBL- 2010 has only two

building categories i.e. residential and

non-residential.

The approach of TSBL2005 may be used for

calculation structure.


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Calculation

procedure

√ A compliance tool was developed for

TSBL-2005. This tool is specific for

TSBL-2005 compliance and hence is on

the similar lines as per international

best practices

X For TSBL-2010, as of now, similar tool

does not seem to be available.

The compliance tool developed for

TSBL2005 may be updated or enhanced for

use in short term plan to include proposed

prescriptive requirements for lighting,

HVAC, SWH etc.. For medium term plan,

separate tool, covering whole building

approach may be developed.

Regular updating

of BEEC

X TSBL 2005 has not been updated so

far. It does not specify any mechanism

for regular updating cycle of the

standard.

X

TSBL 2010 is relatively new from the

point of view of updating. It also does

not specify any mechanism for regular

updating cycle of the standard.

An updating mechanism can be defined to

follow the international best practices.

Staged

implementation

√ The development of TSBL-2005 seems

to be on the similar lines as

international best practices, starting

from thermal requirements that can be

extended to fully integrated energy

performance code.

√ The development of TSBL-2010 seems

to be on the similar lines as

international best practices, starting

from thermal requirements to fully

integrated energy performance code as

shown in Appendix-1.

Since there a spurt of construction activities

in Lebanon, it might be better to speed up

the staged implementation of BEEC and go

for whole building energy efficiency based

code at the earliest. This will allow Lebanon

to capture the potential of energy savings in

all the upcoming construction works.


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Mandatory

compliance

X Currently TSBL2005 is not a

mandatory standard.

X Currently TSBL2010 is not a

mandatory standard.

TSBL should be made mandatory as per

international best practices. It is a very

crucial exercise at this juncture and

mandating the code will really help in

achieving a larger penetration of code which

in turn would yield energy savings for the

country. Either the thermal code should be

mandated in short term or simple building

energy code addressing the envelope,

HVAC, lighting, and SWH system through

prescriptive approach should be developed

and mandated. In medium term, whole

building BEEC can be targeted for being

mandatory.

Thorough

enforcement

procedure

X As per available documents

enforcement procedure for TSBL is not

yet developed.

X As per available documents

enforcement procedure for TSBL is not

yet developed.

The introduction of a mandatory building

energy codes would require the

establishment of a verification check at the

building permit phase, at the building

construction phase, and at the pre-

operation phase. The process has not been

established as yet in Lebanon. As per the

best practice, the enforcement of code

would require a holistic approach in tandem

with operational agencies at all the phases


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Penalties for lack

of compliance

X As per available documents penalties

for lack of compliance have not been

spelled out. TSBL 2005 is still not

mandatory.

X As per available documents penalties

for lack of compliance have not been

spelled out. TSBL 2010 is still not

mandatory.

Since the enforcement procedure for TSBL

is not yet developed in Lebanon, provisions

of penalties should be planned for the

medium term implementation. The carrot

and stick approach has given better results

in almost all parts of the world where initial

handholding to the new regimes are

provided to incentives schemes [favorable

policies], recognition followed by corrective

actions through penalties and allied

controlling measures.

Track compliance

rates

X As per available documents mechanism

for tracking compliance rates has not

been spelled out.

X As per available documents mechanism

for tracking

compliance rates has not been spelled

out.

As per international best practice, a

mechanism for tracking compliance rates

should be defined for TSBL/BEEC.

Code training and

certification

X The available documents do not show a

well planned, systematic, multi tier

training and certification program for

TSBL2005.

X The available documents do not show a

well planned, systematic, multi tier

training and certification program for

TSBL2010.

In most countries, induction of the code and

related skills in the academic curriculum

has helped a great deal in developing

trained manpower. The channel can be

established in Lebanon for rigorous training

of professional through any of the

operational regulatory / statutory bodies

responsible for building approvals.


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Voluntary high

performance

incentive

programs

X TSBL-2005 is silent about voluntary

high performance incentives.

X TSBL-2010 is silent about voluntary

high performance incentives.

Some of the voluntary programs for high

performance buildings are already present

in Lebanon. The Lebanon Green Building

Council [GBC] is an independent body and

is working towards Lebanese applicable

certification and labeling of buildings. This

is in line with international best practices.

However, some additional incentives can be

floated through the TSBL or BEEC.

Demonstration

projects

X The available documents do not show

plans for showcasing TSBL2005

through demonstration project.

X The available documents do not show

plans for showcasing TSBL2010

through demonstration project.

Demonstration projects would be required

for TSBL to document the design process

including design discussions and decisions,

together with the evaluation and approval

process.


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APPENDIX 2- REVIEW AND COMPARISON OF TSBL 2005 AND TSBL 2010

General observations:

S.

No

Observations Reference Recommendations

1. Multilevel numbering

The document has bulleted points and unnumbered sections at several

places. It becomes difficult to cite any specific section or bulleted point.

Use of multilevel numbering throughout the document might be useful.

-- Multilevel numbering to be followed in

the further development of standard.

2. Standard test procedures

Standard test procedures for determining the properties such as U-

value of glass, insulation, etc. are not mentioned in either of the codes.

To avoid ambiguity, standard test procedures followed by the

country/internationally may be mentioned in the code.

-- Standard test procedures for

determining the properties such as U-

value of glass, insulation, etc. should be

mentioned.

3. Trade-off method

In TSBL 2005, section 6.2 ‘Compliance with the Thermal Transmittance

using the Overall Envelope Approach’ gives the trade-off approach. This

approach is part of prescriptive path. The overall envelope approach

permits trade off between building envelope components, and as such

provides more building design flexibility.

In TSBL 2010, section 6, the trade-off method is a separate compliance

path. There are three compliance path in TSBL 2010- prescriptive

option, trade-off option, performance option.

Technically both the codes have similar approach for trade-off method,

except that in TSBL 2005 it is part of prescriptive approach, and in

TSBL 2010 it is a separate option.

Page-7, TSBL

2005

Page 8, TSBL

2010

Trade-off method as give in TSBL 2005

can be adopted for further development.

Trade off method should be part of

prescriptive approach


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Comparison of TSBL2005 and TSBL2010 related to prescriptive and trade-off method:

S.

No

Observations Reference Recommendations

1. TSBL2010 uses the term ‘Cooling/heating thermal

energy requirement/need’. At several places, term

‘Cooling/heating energy requirement/need’ is used. It

will be helpful if the terms used are consistent

throughout the document and are clearly defined in the

code since one of the best practices for building energy

efficiency codes is ‘not to have any ambiguity in

interpretation’.

TSBL-10, Page-2, last

point.

TSBL-10, Page-6, para-3.

TSBL-10, page-15, section

7.1: ‘Compliance’

Consistency in the terms to be ensured.

2. Climatic sub zone 1A, 1B

In TSBL-2010, Table-2 shows that climatic zone 1 is split

as 1A and 1B, whereas the requirements mentioned in the

TSBL-2010 are common for these sub-categories. TSBL-

2005 does not split of climatic zone-1 in two sub-

categories.

The climatic zone-1 is split into two sub-zones based

upon altitude, wherein 1A is applicable for altitude less

than 400m, and 1B is for altitude greater than 400m.

The main difference between these two sub-zones is the

intensity and duration of winters. 1A has warm and short

winter and 1B has cold and long winter that increases

with altitude. However the requirements for envelope in

these two sub-zones are identical. This may be revisited.

TSBL 2010Page-6, Table-2 Requirements for building envelope for sub-

zones 1A and 1B should be revisited.


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3. Location of insulation above/below deck.

Section 6.1 of TSBL 2010 specifies the maximum

reference U-values for roofs, walls, glazing and exposed

and semi-exposed floors for the four climatic zones and

two building categories viz. Residential and non-

residential. Similar table [having different values] is

given in TSBL-2005 under section 6.11.

However, the code is silent for placement of insulation

especially for the roof i.e. over deck or under deck.

As per the best practices for energy efficiency, placement

of insulation is done as per the climatic conditions.

To reduce ambiguity it will be helpful if the code clearly

specifies placement of insulation with respect to the

deck.

TSBL 2010, Page-8,

section 6.1

Over-deck insulation may be recommended

for cooling dominated zones, whereas under-

deck placement of insulation is recommended

for heating dominated zones.

4. Roof insulation for climatic zones

In TSBL-2005 Table-2, reference thermal transmittance

values are given for roof. According to this table, for both

the building types in Zone-1,2,3 thermal transmittance

values are same i.e. 0.57W/m2K. For zone-4, this value is

0.44W/m2K for both the building categories.

In TSBL-2010 Table-3, value for climatic zone-1, non-

residential building category is 0.71 W/m2K, and value

for non-residential building in Zone-2,3,4 is 0.55

W/m2K.

It is observed that not only the values are different in

TSBL-2005 and TSBL-2010, but the trend of the values

is also different.

This may be revisited.

TSBL 2005 Page-6, Table-

2

TSBL 2010 Page-8, Table-3

The values for TSBL 2005 were arrived at

much before the values of TSBL 2010. Also the

payback analysis must have been done based

on the cost of electricity and materials

prevailing at these times. Further, both the

codes are addressing only the thermal energy

aspect of the building the equipment

efficiencies considered might not be same as

the efficiencies that might be mandated in the

proposed elemental code. Hence it is

recommended that these values be revisited

after the equipment efficiencies are included

in the elemental code


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5. Maximum allowable WWR in cold zone:

TSBL-2010 puts a restriction on maximum allowable

WWR for all the building categories in all the climatic

zones. TSBL-2005 also puts such a restriction. In TSBL-

2005, the maximum reference effective fenestration ratio

in Zone-4 [high mountain] is 21% for non-residential

buildings as compared to 10-13% in other zones. In

TSBL-2010, the values in all the zones ranges between

19-21%. Rather the value in zone-4 [high mountain] for

non-residential is 0.2 and in zone-1 for non-residential is

0.21. The values in TSBL-2010 and 2005 are different

and the trend also seems to be different. This may be

revisited.

TSBL 2005, Page 10,

Table-8,

TSBL 2010, Page 13, Table-

9,

Before finalization of the standard, a

simulation based exercise may be carried out

[with combined thermal and lighting analysis]

to make sure that the recommendation are

based on the current costs and include the

efficiency of lighting and HVAC.

Use of term WWR is recommended for this

purpose as done in TSBL 2010.

6. Architectural shading factor:

TSBL 2010 gives the architectural shading factor for

windows protected by overhangs only, fins only, both fins

and overhangs in Tables 6,7,8. TSBL 2005 also gives the

architectural shading factor for windows protected by

overhangs only, fins only, both fins and overhangs in

Tables 5,6,7. However, the categories of projection factor

[PF] for which the architectural shading factor [ASF] is

given, as well as values of the architectural factors in

both the codes are significantly different. Snapshot of

ASF for overhangs only in TSBL-2005:

TSBL 2005, page 9, Table

5,6,7

TSBL 2010, Page 12,13,

Table 6,7,8

This difference between the two standards

needs to be revisited.


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The above is the snapshot of ASF for overhangs only in

TSBL-2010.

The values of ASF for overhangs, fins and combination of

overhangs and fins may be revisited.

7. Maximum WWR

As per TSBL-2010 the prescriptive and Building-

Envelope Trade-Off path cannot be used when the

proposed building has a window to gross wall ratio

greater than 45%, or when the proposed building has a

skylight to gross roof ratio [the gross roof area is

TSBL 2010, Page 7, last

para

The values for TSBL 2005 were arrived at

much before the values of TSBL 2010. Also the

payback analysis must have been done based

on the cost of electricity and materials

prevailing at these times. Further, both the

codes are addressing only the thermal energy


98 | P a g e

inclusive of the skylight area] greater than 5%. The

performance path should be used in these cases.

Whereas, as per TSBL-2005 the prescriptive path cannot

be used when the proposed building has a window to

gross wall ratio [the gross wall area is inclusive of the

window area] greater than 0.30, or when the proposed

building has a skylight to gross roof ratio [the gross roof

area is inclusive of the skylight area] greater than 0.05.

The performance path should be used in these cases.

The increase in limit from 30% to 45% may be revisited.

TSBL 2005, Page 4, last

para

aspect of the building the equipment

efficiencies considered might not be same as

the efficiencies that might be mandated in the

proposed elemental code. Hence it is

recommended that these values be revisited

after the equipment efficiencies are included

in the elemental code

8. Provision of cool roof:

In both the standards TSBL-2005 and TSBL-2010, there

is no mention of high albedo roofs in either the

prescriptive or performance method. High albedo roof

can help in reducing the heat ingress and can help in

saving cooling energy consumption.

In cooling dominated climatic zones, high

albedo roof (cool roof) may be inserted as one

requirement for building envelope.


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Comparison of TSBL-2005 and TBL-2010 for performance method:

S.No. Observations Reference

1. In TSBL 2005, the compliance through performance

path can be achieved if the computed annual thermal

energy needs of the proposed building is less than

computed annual thermal energy needs of the

reference building in kWh/sqm/yr as given in section

7.3. The reference building is similar to the proposed

building except that the building envelop components

should comply with the requirements of the individual

component approach of the prescriptive path. The

Reference Building thermal energy usage is the total

heating and cooling energy requirements in kilowatt-

hours [kWh] determined by the building simulation

software using the same inputs as the reference

building, including the same weather files and fixed

simulation parameters which have been approved by

the competent Lebanese authority.

In TSBL 2010, compliance through performance path

is achieved if the computed annual specific thermal

energy needs [cooling and heating] of the proposed

building is less than Reference annual specific thermal

energy needs [cooling and heating] of same category of

building in the specified climatic zone [kWh/m2.year]

as given in section 7.2. Further, Simulation Parameters

related to occupancy and usage of the building are not

fixed but shall be justified according to ASHRAE

TSBL 2005, Page 13

TSBL 2010, Page 15

Approach of TSBL 2005 is on the lines of

international best practices. The performance

path of TSBL 2010 is based on specific energy

targets, this method is generally applied to

existing buildings. Hence it is recommended

to follow the approach given in TSBL 2005.


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Fundamentals Book.

Approach of TSBL 2005 is on the lines of international

best practices. The performance path of TSBL 2010 is

based on specific energy targets, this method is

generally applied to existing buildings. For simulation

parameters, TSBL 2005 refers to competent Lebanese

authority, whereas, TSBL 2010 standard refers to

ASHRAE Fundamental Book for various parameters.

2.

Simulation software

In TSBL 2005, under the section 7.2, it is mentioned

that the list of approved software packages will be

established by the relevant National Institution. From

then, any of the approved software packages can be

used for the calculation of the expected total annual

energy requirements for heating and cooling for the

proposed and reference buildings.

In TSBL 2010, under section 7.1, it is mentioned that

the list of approved software packages will be

established periodically by the Order of Engineers and

Architects and LIBNOR. From then, any of the

approved software packages can be used for the

calculation of the expected total annual thermal energy

requirements for heating and cooling for the proposed

buildings. Whereas, in the compliance form on page-

44, names of seven software are listed. It is not clear if

these software are approved by the Order of Engineers

and Architects and LIBNOR.

TSBL 2005, Page 12

TSBL 2010, Page 15

The list of the approved software should be

clearly mentioned and it should cover several

commonly used software worldwide.


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Comparison of TSBL-2005 and TBL-2010 for compliance forms and tools:

S.No. Observations Reference

1. Compliance tools

A compliance tool was developed for TSBL-2005. This

tool is specific for TSBL-2005 compliance and hence is

on the similar lines as per international best practices.

For TSBL-2010, as of now similar tool does not seem

to be available.

It is recommended to continue the

development of the tool developed for

compliance for TSBL 2005 and include the

proposed prescriptive requirements for

lighting, HVAC etc

2. Compliance forms

Annexure-5 gives the compliance forms for TSBL-

2010. No such forms are available for TSBL 2005.

TSBL 2010, Page 34-45

It is recommended to continue the

development of the compliance forms

developed for compliance for TSBL 2010 and

include the proposed prescriptive

requirements for lighting, HVAC, SWH etc

3. Ambiguity in compliance forms:

Compliance table on page-39 of TSBL 2010, column

headings ‘double glazing e [mm]’, ‘single glass e [mm]’,

‘thick [cm]’ are not clear.

These headings should be self explanatory or be

clarified separately.

TSBL 2010, Page 39

The forms should not be ambiguous.


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APPENDIX 3- RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ADOPTING TSBL 2005 AND TSBL 2010 FOR DEVELOPING ELEMENTAL CODE AND BEEC

Based on the comparison of TSBL 2005 and TSBL 2010 with international best practices,

some recommendations have been arrived at. Some of the recommendations are related

to the development of the code and are technical in nature. Others are related to the

implementation of the code. Recommendations regarding implementation will be

discussed in details in the roadmap to be provided later by PwC consortium.

1. Both the standards don’t address the whole building. A lot of fuel is imported in

Lebanon, electricity is subsidized and the supply of electricity is intermittent

leading to widespread use of on-site diesel operated electricity generators as

back-up that are usually expensive to run. The common metric for the whole

building approach would hence be very important.

2. Split of climatic zone in sub-categories in 1A and 1B to be retained as in TSBL

2010. However, requirements for these sub-categories should be revisited.

3. It might be helpful if the standards consider further classification such as low-rise

and high rise.

4. Specific calculation structure of TSBL 2005 is on the lines of international best

practices. The performance path of TSBL 2010 is based on specific energy targets,

this method is generally applied to existing buildings. Hence it is recommended

to follow the approach given in TSBL 2005.

5. The compliance tool developed for TSBL2005 may be updated or enhanced for

use in short term plan to include proposed prescriptive requirements for lighting,

HVAC, solar water heating etc. For medium term plan, separate tool, covering

whole building performance based approach may be developed.

6. An updating mechanism can be defined to follow the international best practices.

7. Since there a spurt of construction activities in Lebanon, it might be better to

speed up the staged implementation of BEEC and go for whole building energy

efficiency based code at the earliest. This will allow Lebanon to capture the

potential of energy savings in all the upcoming construction works.

8. TSBL should be made mandatory as per international best practices. It is a very

crucial exercise at this juncture and mandating the code will really help in

achieving a larger penetration of code which in turn would yield energy savings

for the country. Either the thermal code should be mandated in short term or

simple building energy code addressing the envelope, HVAC,lighting and solar


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water heating through prescriptive approach should be developed and mandated.

In medium term, whole building BEEC can be targeted for being mandatory.

9. The introduction of a mandatory building energy codes would require the

establishment of a verification check at the building permit phase, at the building

construction phase, and at the pre-operation phase. The process has not been

established as yet in Lebanon. As per the best practice, the enforcement of code

would require a holistic approach in tandem with operational agencies at all the

phases

10. Since the enforcement procedure for TSBL is not yet developed in Lebanon,

provisions of penalties should be planned for the medium term implementation.

The carrot and stick approach has given better results in almost all parts of the

world where initial handholding to the new regimes are provided to incentives

schemes (favorable policies), recognition followed by corrective actions through

penalties and allied controlling measures.

11. As per international best practice, a mechanism for tracking compliance rates

should be defined for TSBL/BEEC.

12. In most countries, induction of the code and related skills in the academic

curriculum has helped a great deal in developing trained manpower. The channel

can be established in Lebanon for rigorous training of professional through any of

the operational regulatory / statutory bodies responsible for building approvals.

13. Some of the voluntary programs for high performance buildings are already

present in Lebanon. The Lebanon Green Building Council (GBC) is an

independent body and is working towards Lebanese applicable certification and

labeling of buildings . This is in line with international best practices. However,

some additional incentives can be floated through the TSBL or BEEC.

14. Demonstration projects would be required for TSBL to document the design

process including design discussions and decisions, together with the evaluation

and approval process.

15. Mulitlevel numbering to be followed in the further development of standard.

16. Standard test procedures for determining the properties such as U-value of glass,

insulation, etc. should be mentioned.

17. Trade-off method as give in TSBL 2005 can be adopted for further development.

Tradeoff method should be part of prescriptive approach

18. Over-deck insulation may be recommended for cooling dominated zones, whereas

under-deck placement of insulation is recommended for heating dominated


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zones.

19. The values for TSBL 2005 were arrived at much before the values of TSBL 2010.

Also the payback analysis must have been done based on the cost of electricity

and materials prevailing at these times. Further, both the codes are addressing

only the thermal energy aspect of the building, the equipment efficiencies

considered might not be same as the efficiencies that might be mandated in the

proposed elemental code. Hence it is recommended that these values be revisited

after the equipment efficiencies are included in the elemental code

20. In cooling dominated climatic zones, high albedo roof (cool roof) may be inserted

as one requirement for building envelope.

21. Instead of giving the list of approved software, it might be better, to give the

capabilities and requirements of the energy simulation software and any software

meeting these requirements should be allowed to be used. Some names can be

listed as examples.

22. It is recommended to continue the development of the tool developed for

compliance for TSBL 2005 and include the proposed prescriptive requirements

for lighting, HVAC etc

23. It is recommended to continue the development of the compliance forms

developed for compliance for TSBL 2010 and include the proposed prescriptive

requirements for lighting, HVAC, SWH etc

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