Publications

This document attempts to answer the following questions: What is the potential value of increasing compliance with the energy code and which code requirements should be emphasized during these studies? Ultimately, these are the questions that policy makers, funders, and program implementers care about. To answer them, a far more sophisticated approach is needed, one that addresses not only the question of value, but also the resource requirements to determine that value.

This project was initiated to review residential provisions of the Florida Building Code, Energy Conservation, 7th Edition (2020) (FBC-EC) in order to make a determination if it meets or exceeds the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

This project’s code stringency evaluation activities included:

• Reviewing residential provisions of the 2020 FBC-EC and comparing them with residential provisions of the 2018 IECC
• Listing impactful code differences by Mandatory, Prescriptive, Performance and Energy Rating Index categories and providing the anticipated stringency impact for each
• Using EnergyGauge® USA energy modeling software to compare 2018 IECC and 2020 FBC-EC Prescriptive and Performance compliance method stringencies.

This project was initiated because of the state of Florida desire to review provisions of its proposed 7th Edition (2020) Florida Energy Code (FEC) for commercial buildings in order to make a determination if it meets or performs better than ASHRAE 90.1-2016 code. For this purpose the proposed code modifications were reviewed and quantitatively analyzed.