Model energy code makes strides

The path to market saturation of a technology.

New commercial buildings of all stripes may soon be reaching heights of efficiency previously reserved for green buildings, which in turn may also become more efficient.

New Buildings Institute (NBI) announced in late November that a major code proposal based on its Core Performance Guide it submitted to International Energy Code Council (IECC) was approved in October.

NBI’s proposal was developed with American Institute of Architects and U.S. Department of Energy. The proposal, called EC 147, would require buildings to be up to 30 percent more energy efficient compared to the current model code if it is adopted as currently written.

The model code is updated every three years. Energy efficiency hasn’t improved in a code by that much since the oil-price shocks of the 70s and 80s, according to Jim Edelson, senior consultant on building codes for White Salmon-based NBI. Each new version generally increases energy efficiency by less than 10 percent, he says. The 2006 update boosted efficiency by 10 percent, according to Edelson.

Compounding the potential effects is that the model code is adopted whole or in part by 25 states and is the baseline minimum for all jurisdictions with energy efficiency codes and for green building certifications. Edelson likens the spread of higher efficiency buildings to  a technology diffusion curve. ““Codes address the laggers on the curve,” he says. “Codes are meant to make sure the whole market is brought up to what’s very feasible and what’s cost effective at this point.”

The proposal is now in a public comment period until July 1, 2010. A final vote on it will be held in November 2010. “I think there’s as much potential for it to become more stringent as there is for it to become less stringent” before then, Edelson says.