Agenda Information Sheet
DEPARTMENT: Development Services, Building Inspections Division
CM/ ACM: Jon Fortune
Date: September 13, 2016
SUBJECT
Title
Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding additional amendments to the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) as proposed by the North Central Texas Council of Governments and recommended by staff.
Body
BACKGROUND
As a result of testing conducted by builders attempting to prepare for the requirements of the 2015 IECC, it was determined that the most challenging issue was obtaining compliance with the maximum air leakage requirements of the code. As a result, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (COG), in conjunction with the Dallas Builders Association, and other industry representatives, developed a proposed amendment to the 2015 IECC which would allow for an alternative prescriptive path for complying with these code requirements. As required by State law, COG submitted the proposed amendments to the Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) at Texas A&M University for analysis and on July 8, 2016 the ESL completed its review of the proposed amendments. ESL determined that the proposed amendments met or exceeded the efficiency requirements of the 2015 IECC. COG posted these proposed amendments under the recommended amendments section of their website in August.
The 2015 IECC currently provides both a prescriptive and a performance based path to builders when determining how to demonstrate compliance with the code. The performance based path has several options and several different software programs available to the builder to demonstrate compliance. However, the prescriptive path has a single rigid set of guidelines which must be followed in order to demonstrate compliance. The proposed amendments apply to those projects which are choosing to comply with this prescriptive path. The purpose of these amendments is to allow builders a less rigid option to demonst...
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