By Andrei Moldoveanu, Technical Fellow Buildings Infrastructure

It’s High Performance Building Week—a week of events and news that promotes building safety and the latest in building innovation and technology. NEMA is a member of the High Performance Building Coalition (HPBC) and supports the advancement of building innovation and technologies as pillars of our infrastructure. While many public events will take place this week, today we are excited to highlight NEMA’s Updated White Paper on Automatic Receptacle Control Applications (ARCs). As we strive for increased building efficiency and seek to address greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency codes and standards have turned to automatic receptacle controls as one tool to reduce unneeded energy waste in commercial buildings.

Automatic receptacle controls (ARCs), also known as plug load controls, reduce electrical consumption in buildings. An increasing number of states and localities are requiring ARCs as part of their commercial building energy codes. NEMA’s recently published white paper, “Automatic Receptacle Control to Meet Energy-Efficiency Requirements in Codes and Standards (NEMA BI-50002-2022),” which supersedes the earlier paper NEMA WD ARCP 1-2016, aids electrical designers, installing contractors, building inspectors and building owners, in applying ARCs for increased energy efficiency.

The electrical load profile for buildings is increasing due in large part to plug in devices and equipment and ARCs play a critical role in decreasing those loads on buildings. Think of ACRs as a leaking faucet; during a time when electrical devices and equipment are not needed, but can continue to consume energy, ARCs prevent the electrical leak.  NEMA’s updated white paper explains in detail how ARCs prevent electrical leak and provides building electrical designers, building owners and others information on how to utilize ARCs for energy efficiency. The paper also explains how to comply with adopting energy codes and standards which require ARCs use.

The updated NEMA white paper is a critical resource for those specifying, designing, installing and inspecting the energy efficient use and arrangement of automatic receptacle controls in buildings. In the document, NEMA shares examples of automatic receptacle control application approaches, typical wiring methods and the visible markings required on the receptacles by the NEC.