Public Act 04-85, established energy efficiency standards for a variety of heating, cooling, lighting, and other types of products.  The legislation mandates that products that do not meet Connecticut standards cannot be sold, offered for sale or installed in Connecticut on or after the effective date of the standard.  Since the legislation was passed, Federal energy legislation was passed that pre-empts states from establishing standards for certain products.  For Connecticut, that means most of the standards will not be taking effect.  However, for the following products, standards will be established in Connecticut until the federal standards take over:

Public Act 07-242 adds a number of new products that are required to meet energy efficiency standards.  These include: residential furnaces and boilers (only those purchased by state government), residential pool pumps, metal halide lamp fixtures, single voltage external AC to DC power supplies, state regulated incandescent reflector lamps, bottle-type water dispensers, commercial hot food holding cabinets, portable electric spas, walk-in refrigerators and walk-in freezers, and pool heaters.  Subsequent federal legislation pre-empts several of the above products.  Current status is as follows:

Product	CT Standards become effective	Pre-emption date by federal standards
Bottle-type water dispensers	1/1/09	N/A
Comm. hot food holding cabinets	1/1/09	N/A
Metal halide lamp fixtures	---	Pre-empted
Single voltage external power supplies	1/1/08	7/1/08
Spas (hot tubs)	1/1/09	N/A
State-regulated incand. reflector lamps	---	Pre-empted
Swimming pool pumps	1/1/10	N/A
Walk-in refrig. & freezers	---	Pre-empted
Residential furnaces & boilers	Procurement requirement for state agencies only	N/A
Pool Heaters	1/1/09, partially pre-empted*	---

*Per federal legislation, states are pre-empted from establishing standards for pool heaters.  However, states are permitted to prohibit standing pilot lights on pool heaters.

Connecticut Energy Efficiency Regulations

To view a listing of products that comply or do not comply with Connecticut's Product Efficiency Standards, visit www.appliancestandards.org.

High Performance (Green) Building Standards

Public Acts 06-187 Section 70, 07-213 Section 5, 07-242 Section 10, and 07-249 Section 15 require that the Office of Policy and Management develop high performance building regulations for state agency buildings and school buildings. The regulations address the construction of (1) a State agency facility projected to cost five million dollars or more and for which all budgeted bond fund are allocated by the State Bond Commission on or after 1/1/09; (2) Renovation of a State agency facility projected to cost two million dollars or more and utilizing two million dollars of state funds approved and funded after 1/1/08; (3) new construction of a facility projected to cost five million or more of which two million dollars or more is state funds and is authorized by the General Assembly pursuant to Chapter 173 on or after 1/1/09; and (4) renovation of a public school facility as defined in subdivision (18) of section 10-282 that is projected to cost two million dollars or more of which two million or more is state funding and is authorized by the General Assembly pursuant to chapter 173 on or after 1/1/09 must comply with state regulations. (see pdf below) These regulations were approved with technical corrections by the Regulation Review Committee on August 25, 2009 and submitted to the Secretary of State as required under the Connecticut General Statutes Sec. 4-172 on September 2, 2009.  

Contact: John Ruckes, (860) 418-6384; john.ruckes@ct.gov

Regulation 16a-38k-1 through 9 {PDF}

Connecticut Building Standard Guidelines Compliance Manual for High Performance Buildings Manual {PDF}

11/17/09 Presentation to the AIA-Connecticut on high performance building regulations {pdf}