The National Building Code of Canada (NBC) does not currently assign energy conservation points to oil-fired furnaces in the prescriptive trade-off path in Section 9.36. This proposed change would establish the number of energy conservation points assigned to oil-fired furnaces with performance levels that exceed the minimum performance required by Energy Performance Tier 1.

A failure to assign energy conservation points to oil-fired furnaces would not allow Code users to obtain the energy conservation points associated with the energy savings from installing a high-efficiency oil-fired furnace unless they used the performance compliance path.

In order to accumulate the total number of energy conservation points required to demonstrate compliance with higher tiers, Code users should have additional options in terms of energy conservation measures than those currently provided in the Code.

The choice of oil-fired furnace contributes to energy savings in a building. Code users who choose to install a high-efficiency oil-fired furnace should benefit from the additional energy savings provided by the equipment when complying with the prescriptive trade-off path in Section 9.36.

If energy conservation points are assigned to oil-fired furnaces that exceed the minimum performance required by Energy Performance Tier 1 in the NBC, Code users would benefit from this additional option for demonstrating compliance with a higher energy performance tier in the prescriptive trade-off path.

Additionally, this proposed change adds granularity for energy conservation points provided in tabulated form for oil-fired furnaces by allowing interpolation. If this proposed change did not permit interpolation, Code users would only be able to claim the lower of two point values when the energy conservation measure falls between two values listed in proposed Table 9.36.8.9.-B.

Failure to add additional energy conservation measures to the Code might prevent Code users from accumulating sufficient points to comply with higher tiers, as required by their respective jurisdictions.

This proposed change would make complying with the energy performance tiers through the prescriptive path more affordable by increasing the number of measures eligible for accumulating points and allowing Code users to obtain credit for the energy savings associated with installing a high-efficiency oil-fired furnace.

In Table 1, the incremental cost includes only the material cost and excludes other costs (e.g., oil tank, installation). Upgrading to a higher efficiency oil-fired furnace does not result in a substantial increase in energy savings relative to the increase in the incremental cost of the equipment. When choosing to install a higher efficiency oil-fired furnace, the Code user would benefit from receiving the assigned energy conservation points for that equipment to demonstrate compliance with a higher energy tier of the prescriptive trade-off path. With this proposed change, Code users who choose to install higher efficiency oil-fired furnaces would be credited with between 1.2 and 5.9 energy conservation points, which represents the percentage energy savings, and would incur a cost of between $2,224 and $4,124.

Table 1. Incremental Cost Compared to an 86% AFUE Furnace by Region

Source: Task Group on Prescriptive Trade-off Path in Section 9.36.

Notes to Table:

(1) AFUE = annual fuel utilization efficiency

(2) Equipment: Granby-Conforto oil-fired furnace, models KLR, KLF and KHM

(3) Equipment: Granby-Conforto oil-fired furnace, model KLC 

This proposed change could be enforced by the existing Code enforcement infrastructure.

Designers, engineers, architects, builders and building officials.