Los Angeles EBEWE Frequently Asked Questions

The following buildings are exempt from benchmarking

• Vacant for the entire year (Building has no Certificate of Occupancy)
• Vacant for the entire year due to renovation
• Demolition permit issued and work begun
• No energy or water service for the calendar year of the report

A building with a triple-net lease is exempt from EBEWE. It is called a "Base-Building exemption". You will be required to submit a copy of the lease to LADBS indicating the page(s) referencing the lease terms.

If your commercial building has 3 or more tenants you will not be required to get individual tenant permission to obtain their utility data. You may request "whole-building" or aggregated" data from the utilities. As the name implies, only the total building's usage is provided. No one tenant's data is shown, thus protecting the tenant's confidentiality.

If you have only one or two tenants, you will be required to obtain the tenant's permission to obtain the utility data.

The deadlines for filing the Audit and RCx reports are determined by the last digit of the LADBS Building ID Number as follows:

For a building to qualify for an exemption to the ENERGY Audit and Retro-commissioning Reporting, items 1, 2 or 3 must apply.

1. The building has been occupied for less than 5 years.

2. High-performance exemptions to energy A/RCx reports include:

a. The building received ENERGY STAR certification for the period (or 2 of the 3 years preceding the audit year)

b. For a building type not eligible for ENERGY STAR certification, the building must perform 25% better than the national median for similar-use buildings

c. The building has reduced its Source-Use Intensity by 15% over the period 5-year period before the report year.

3. Title 24 energy A/RCx exemptions for a building that does not have a central cooling system (or the aggregated capacity of the individual systems is less than 100 tons), the building must retrofit four of the six measures below:

a. Common area and exterior lighting installed per Title 24

b. Pipe insulation insulated under Title 24

c. Cool Roof installed in accordance with Title 24

d. A solar hot water system is installed

e. Domestic hot water installed per Title 24

f. Building owner participates in a Demand Response program for electricity

For a building to qualify for an exemption to the WATER Audit and Retro-commissioning, items 1, 2 or 3 must apply.

1. The building has been occupied for less than 5 years.

2. The building has reduced its water use intensity by at least 20% when compared to the period five years prior to the audit year.

3. Title 24 water A/RCx exemptions for a building that does not have a central chilled-water cooling system and meets the following requirements:

a. Low-flow faucets and shower heads installed following Title 24

b. Front-loading washing machines installed in all common laundry facilities

c. Water closets and urinals installed in accordance with Title 24

If your building meets the requirements for an exemption as certified by our Professional Engineer or Architect, Pegasus will prepare and file your Exemption Report. Certifying the above is less expensive than a costly A/RCx process. Investing in Title 24 improvements may be cheaper as well, and you will start saving energy costs immediately.

The cost to prepare the annual Energy Benchmark report ranges from $225 to $350.

The cost of preparing the 5-Year Energy Audit and Retro-commissioning Report varies from $.10 to $.40 per square foot

The cost of preparing the 5-Year Water Audit and Retro-commissioning Report ranges from $.05 to $.30 per square foot.

For the reporting period, monthly (or bi-monthly)

• Water use
• Electricity usage
• Gas consumption
• Energy generated by on-site solar or wind power.

Each building must be benchmarked separately using the associated Building ID, provided it meets the minimum footage requirements for reporting.

The EBEWE non-compliance fee is $202. This fee may be subject to late fees, collection fees, and interest.

If this invoice is not paid within 30 days of the date of the invoice, an additional 250% late charge/collection fee will be imposed and an assignment to a collection agency may be made. After 60 days of no payment, interest will accrue at the rate of 12% annually (compounded monthly or a portion of a month) until this invoice and any additional charges that have accrued since this invoice was issued have been paid.

Please note that payment of the non-compliance fee does not result in Compliance. The building will remain out of compliance with the City of Los Angeles and, as with any Los Angeles Municipal Code violation, will be subject to further legal action. Additionally, the status of each building (Complied or Not Complied) is posted publicly and, in the future, may be recorded on the property as an open violation.

The homeowner’s association is responsible for benchmarking the building(s).

• Summary statistics on overall compliance
• Summary statistics on overall energy and water consumption of buildings subject to the EBEWE Ordinance derived from aggregation of annual benchmarking reports; and
• Building address and property use type;
• The Energy Star® Portfolio Manager Energy Star score for the building, where available;
• The weather-normalized site and source energy use intensity (EUI) per unit area per year (kBTU per square foot per year) for the building;
• The site and source energy use intensity (EUI) per unit area per year (kBTU per square foot per year) for the building;
• The annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions due to energy use for the building as estimated by ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager;
• Indoor water use, indoor water intensity, outdoor water use (when available), and total water use; and
• The status of compliance with the requirements of the EBEWE ordinance.

Call Chuck at 415-397-5046.