Planning on having a furnace or air conditioner installed or replaced? New California energy rules may apply to you.

Recently, the legal department of the California Association of Realtors (CAR) issued a memo advising members of changes to California's Building Energy Efficiency Standards. These changes are of interest not only to Realtors, but also to homeowners. They could have a significant impact on buyers, sellers, and even those who are staying put, but who want to make some changes.

According to the California Energy Commission, the changes to California's Building Energy Efficiency Standards were adopted in response to California's energy crisis and to Assembly Bill 970 and to Senate Bill 5X, both of which were labeled as "urgency legislation." Some urgency. The assembly bill passed in the year 2000, and the senate bill in 2001. The Commission adopted its new standards in November of 2003, and the Buildings Standard Commission adopted them in July of 2004. They take effect in October of this year, 2005.

The new standards, which encompass a variety of issues ranging from lighting to insulation, are contained in a 151 page document, the "2005 Building Energy Efficiency Standards," which can be found at here . Insomniacs should have this publication at their bedside. Fortunately, there are summaries, which also can be found by going to the aforementioned website.

The pithiest summary of all is contained in a letter to California homeowners that is dated August 2, 2005 and signed by the Commissioner and Vice Chair of the California Energy Commission. The first paragraph reads as follows: "Beginning October 1, 2005 you must have your home's ducts tested for leaks when you have a central air conditioner or furnace installed or replaced. [my emphasis] Ducts that leak 15 percent or more must be repaired to reduce the leaks. After your contractor tests and fixes the ducts, you choose whether to have an approved third-party field verifier check to make sure the duct testing and sealing was done properly or to have your house included in a random sample where one in seven ducts are checked."

The letter goes on to point out that "the average home's ducts leak around 30 percent …," so, it suggests, if you are going to have your AC or furnace replaced, it's a fair bet that you will be required to have the ducts sealed and then tested.

You say you didn't receive this letter? Well, in a move that presumably was designed to save energy -- more likely, money -- the Commission issued this letter, but didn't actually send it to homeowners. Rather, it encouraged "building department personnel, contractors, builders, equipment manufacturers, and distributors" to reproduce the letter and send it to homeowners. How's that for efficiency?

The new regulations are going to generate a lot of confusion and are going to cause a lot of money to be spent unnecessarily. A cynic would suspect that they were sponsored by "special interest groups" -- especially by those who will be the now-required inspectors of newly installed or repaired duct work.

There are exceptions to the new requirements, but you have to dig to find them. Of special interest is the bullet paragraph on page 5 of issue no. 78 of the Energy Commission bulletin, Blueprint. It relates to "Climate Zones 1 and 3 through 8," stating, "In these seven climate zones there are no low-rise residential requirements for duct sealing." That is, if you live in those climate zones, you don't have to do it.

Where are these climate zones? To find out you need to go to the Climate Zone Map . There, and on linked pages, we can learn that most of Orange County is not affected by the duct sealing requirements. San Clemente, Laguna Beach, and Hunting Beach are, for example, in Climate Zone 6. Santa Ana, Aliso Viejo and Yorba Linda are in 8; whereas the San Diego areas of San Onofre and San Luis Rey are both in 7. No one said it had to make sense.