Hey Seattle building owners! Do you own, operate, or manage a mid-size nonresidential building between 50,000-100,000 sf? Do you like energy savings? Do you like financial incentives? You’re in luck! The City of Seattle has partnered with Seattle City Light to provide financial incentives to help building owners get a jump-start on meeting the upcoming Seattle Building Tune-Ups requirement as part of the Building Tune-Up Accelerator Program.

Ready to accelerate your energy savings?

First let’s recap on the Seattle Building Tune-Up Requirement, then I’ll tell you how to take advantage of the financial incentives.

The Seattle Building Tune-Up Ordinance requires the following:

• An on-site assessment of the building systems to identify operational or maintenance issues
• Implementation of the issues identified in the assessment
• Reporting to the City of Seattle

Per SMC 22.930, mid-size nonresidential buildings, 70,000 to 99,999 SF, are required to comply by October 2020 and those 50,000 to 69,999 SF are required to comply by October 2021. But don’t wait until 2020-21 to comply because you can get paid for early compliance via the Accelerator program now! Plus successful completion of the program meets your building’s first mandated tune-up, reduces costs, and allows you to enjoy the benefits and comfort of a freshly-tuned building now instead of waiting until 2020-21.

Here’s what you need to know

50,000-100,000 sq ft

This is the building size eligible for participation in the Accelerator Program.  The City of Seattle has shared that this is not a “hard and fast” cutoff, so don’t fret if your building is a smidge over or under.

$0.12/sq ft

This is the total financial incentive amount available from Seattle City Light for completion of the Accelerator program’s Basic Tune-Up path. This amount includes an initial incentive for completion of the building assessment ($.03/sqft) and an additional incentive for implementation of corrective actions required by the tune-up ($.09/sqft). This incentive is estimated to cover at least 50% of the typical cost of a tune-up.

1.5 years

This is City of Seattle’s predicted simple payback resulting from participation in the Accelerator program. This is the estimate from the electric energy savings alone!

– $2,000

This is the penalty for the first offense of failure to comply per SMC 22.930.210 for buildings 50,000-99,999 sf. Don’t be shocked – but most building owners like to be paid more than pay fines.

12/1/2017

This is the Accelerator program enrollment deadline for building owners. In case you’re counting, that’s less than 60 days away.

All tune-ups must be conducted by a qualified Tune-Up Specialist, and the staff at Paladino meet the requirements. Please contact Hanna Swaintek at hannas@paladinoandco.com or 206-957-8585 today for a fee proposal. We are here to help you meet the tune-up requirements and take advantage of the financial incentives before they disappear!

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