What is LA EBEWE?
LA EBEWE, the Existing Buildings Energy and Water Efficiency program, is a Los Angeles ordinance that requires owners of covered buildings to benchmark energy and water use every year and to complete energy and water audits and retro-commissioning on a periodic cycle, or show that the building already performs well.
What it is
The program has two parts. The first is annual benchmarking of energy and water use, submitted through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The second is a periodic requirement to carry out audits and retro-commissioning, or to demonstrate an exemption through high performance or recent upgrades.
Audits look for opportunities to save energy and water. Retro-commissioning checks that existing systems operate as intended and corrects problems, which often means tuning controls, schedules and setpoints.
The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety administers the program. The audit and retro-commissioning cycle is assigned by building ID.
Who it applies to
Owners of privately owned and city-owned buildings above the size threshold in the City of Los Angeles. Check the department's current rules for thresholds, cycle years and exemption criteria.
What evidence it needs
Compliance needs both annual data and periodic engineering work.
- Annual energy and water benchmarking
- An energy and water audit report
- Retro-commissioning findings and corrections
- Documentation for any exemption claimed
How Aqueduct helps
Aqueduct supplies continuous metered energy and water data, and fault findings that feed the audit and retro-commissioning steps.
- Metered energy and water per building for annual benchmarking
- aQ EnergySmart and aQ AirSafe fault findings that point retro-commissioning at real problems
- aQ WaterGuard leak and overuse detection for the water side of the audit
- Verified results after corrections, so improvements are measured