BECP: Helping States Reach 90% Compliance

Procedures to Measure Compliance

The Department of Energy realizes that the rate of compliance with energy codes will be difficult and costly to determine with precision and accuracy. To help states uniformly address their respective rates of compliance, BECP is developing procedures that states can readily apply to measure and report compliance with building energy codes.

These procedures will be made available to states as they begin to address the energy code-related provisions of ARRA. They will include:

Guidance for home rule states and states with codes other than the target codes
Informational sheets on approaching the jurisdiction prior to the onsite evaluation
Guidelines for developing a random sample of jurisdictions and buildings within those jurisdictions
Recommended certification for those conducting the onsite evaluations
Training materials for onsite evaluators
Guidelines for conducting a plan check on the selected buildings
Guidelines for conducting an onsite building evaluation on the selected buildings
Inspection checklists to be used by evaluators performing the onsite inspection
Guidelines for derivation of the overall state compliance metric
Training materials for the target codes, and to address specific code infractions
Guidelines for meeting the annual measurement requirements
Suggestions for additional information gathering opportunities that might be afforded by this effort
A survey of questions for evaluating administrative and permitting/inspection processes of the jurisdiction and guidelines for collecting and using that information

The procedures will be accompanied by support tools that will allow each state to effectively address compliance verification.

Compliance Tools & Support

Software Support

BECP's code-compliance software, REScheck™ and COMcheck™, support the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code® (IECC).

Training & Support Materials

In addition, BECP anticipates developing automated and paper tools to assist states in implementing the ARRA's 90 percent compliance requirements.

An online "portal" will be developed to provide state access to these materials. The portal will also be a collection point for compliance metrics, to be stored in a national compliance database. The code compliance database will allow states to review the activities of other states and to track state, regional, and national trends. The compliance portal and associated database will assist with communication of activities and lessons learned across states; will provide access to tools and documents; will help ensure that compliance efforts are consistently applied; and will provide an opportunity to consolidate results of studies into regional and national metrics.

BECP anticipates making the following information and tools available on the Code Compliance Portal. Some of the features may have restricted access.

Links to compliance studies, both past studies and studies resulting from this effort
Metrics collected from onsite evaluations by jurisdiction, and aggregated to provide regional and national summaries
Results from process surveys conducted by jurisdiction
Evaluation checklists for various building use types and climates
Tools for generating appropriate random samples
Downloadable PDF files containing much of the information described here, including onsite audit guidelines and fact sheets.

2009 IECC presentations and webcasts are currently available.

Additional Compliance Resources

Compliance Studies

Compliance studies contain links to studies performed at least in part to determine compliance with an applicable energy code. These include both survey-based (telephone) studies, and studies involving onsite evaluation of a sample of buildings.

Best Practices and Baseline Studies

Best practices studies include studies performed to identify best practices for supporting energy codes implementation and enforcement. Baseline studies are studies performed to evaluated energy use in buildings, market evaluations, construction baselines and demographics. These include both survey-based studies and studies involving onsite evaluation of a sample of buildings.