Louisiana Commercial Building Energy Conservation Code (CBECC)

CURRENT CODE: Plans and specifications for all construction under the purview of the Office of the State Fire Marshal or the State Office of Facility Planning and Control must comply with the revised Commercial Building Energy Conservation Code (CBECC). Effective July 20, 2011, ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2007 applies to all private commercial buildings built or remodeled as well as all state-owned construction. Multi-family residential construction must comply with the 2009 IECC. COMcheck may be used to show compliance.

(All private low-rise residential construction is covered by the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code (LSUCC), based on Chapter 11 of the 2006 IRC.)

HISTORY: The 1997 Louisiana Legislature enacted the Commercial Building Energy Conservation Code. The state legislation was mandated by Congress as part of the National Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) which requires that states incorporate energy efficiency standards into their building codes for commercial buildings.

In 2005, the State of Louisiana adopted ASHRAE 90.1-2001 as its Commercial Building Energy Conservation Code (CBECC). This ASHRAE standard applied to commercial buildings and multi-family residential structures over three (3) stories. The CBECC applicable code for multi-family structures three (3) stories or less was the IECC-2000. 

APPLICATION: In Louisiana, commercial buildings are defined as all buildings designed for human occupancy, except one and two family dwellings. The code applies to new commercial buildings and buildings that undergo major renovation. See Compliance FAQs

EXEMPTIONS: Exempt from the code are buildings less than 1,000 square feet gross floor area; buildings, or portions of buildings, heated by a heating system whose output capacity is less than 3.4 Btu/hr-ft2 or cooled by a cooling system whose sensible output capacity is less than 5 Btu/hr-ft2; and buildings, intended primarily for manufacturing or commercial or industrial processing. In addition, special allowances are made for historic buildings (as defined in Act 91-2005).

IMPLEMENTATION: Implementation of the code for state-owned buildings is via plan review in the State Office of Facility Planning and Control and in the State Fire Marshal's office for all other commercial buildings. It has been incorporated into their existing plan review processes. After evaluation of building plans, the reviewer provides the designer and owner with a letter of apparent compliance or a letter of apparent noncompliance. Owners, Contractors or the Professional of Record can appeal the issuance of a letter of apparent noncompliance, if they so desire.

LEGAL BASIS: Louisiana Revised Statute 40:1730.41-1730.48 (Title 40, Sections 1730.41 through 1730.48). Click here to go to the Louisiana legislature search page and find the citation in which you are interested. A linked list of all of the sections in the statute can be seen by going to Title 40's index page and scrolling down to the relevant section number.

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