IECC and Energy Star Updates Provided During NFRC Summer Meeting

A number of updates regarding energy codes and programs were provided during the regulatory affairs and marketing committee meeting, which took place earlier this week as part of the National Fenestration Rating Council's (NFRC) Summer Meeting in Chicago.

Committee chair Garrett Stone with Brickfield, Burchette, Ritts & Stone P.C. began with an International Energy Conservation Codes (IECC) update of adoptions and references for residential construction. He told attendees that states are continuing to adopt the 2006 version of the IECC.

"Every time there's a new version of the code more and more states adopt the new version," said Stone, who added that the next version would be in 2009. "Under federal law the Department of Energy (DOE) is required to review the new code [to determine] whether it's an improvement [over the previous code]," said Stone, who added that while that has yet to be done by the DOE many states are continuing to adopt it.

Rich Karney with the DOE also provided the group with a report on the progress toward revising ENERGY STAR®. He said they have received the draft analysis and reports and the stakeholder meeting will be taking place August 13. Based on the analysis, he said the previous five climate zones will be provided with performance tradeoffs in the Northern two zones; tradeoffs will not be offered in the Southern zones.

"We won't issue final criteria until after the September codes meeting," said Karney. He also added that they are now looking at changing the original three-tiered revision program to a two-tiered implementation plan by removing the 2012 interim phase between 2009 and 2015. The 2009 phase would remain the same, but the 2015 phase (taking advantage of high-performance energy-efficient products currently in development) would move forward to 2013.

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