By Darren Port |
What do codes people talk about at dinner parties? Regional codes trends, of course.
Unfortunately, collegial dinner gatherings still seem a ways off; in place of meeting you in the hotel lobby, we have outlined our Top 10 regional codes trends of the year. We initially discussed these trends at our fourth quarter regional codes working group online meeting. Each codes team member shared a…
By Darren Port |
Connection(s) are everything. It's true in our professional and personal relationships, and now more than ever, it's true for buildings. We have arrived at a time when we are designing and constructing zero energy buildings (houses, commercial buildings, schools) at cost, with a quicker and more significant return on investment than traditional construction. Indeed, we have a way to go before…
By Darren Port |
A March 3, 2021 vote by the International Code Council's (ICC) Board of Directors eliminated the governmental member consensus vote - the final phase of the triannual code update process – for future versions of the International Energy Conservation Code. Instead, the ICC will utilize the ANSI standard development process to promulgate the 2024 IECC.
ICC maintains that the IECC will continue to…
By Darren Port |
As we settle into an undefined period of time at home and away from our offices, my thoughts turn to colleagues and associates throughout the energy sector – particularly those currently unemployed or underemployed: energy raters, HVAC and renewable energy installers, and code officials.
I cannot recall another time when we, the American public, have collectively thought as much about…
By Darren Port |
In December 2017, NEEP published a revised edition of the Model Progressive Building Energy Codes Policy paper, or as we like to call it, our “energy code bible”. The latest version – a new Building Energy Codes for a Carbon-Constrained Era: A Toolkit of Strategies and Examples paper is divided into two sections. The first is a “how-to” advance building energy code development and adoption to…
By Darren Port |
High Hopes for Energy Efficiency In Massachusetts
It was a typical gray and cold Western Mass winter morning, but November 20, 2018 was no ordinary day. Great anticipation filled the streets of Northampton as the first recreational cannabis dispensary opened its doors for sales. A line of thousands of people stood for hours to purchase locally-grown cannabis. My mom texted from Florida at 7:00 a…
By Darren Port |
Recently, I attended two regional events; the first a full-day symposium in Albany, New York titled Adapting Buildings for Climate Change and the second, our own 2018 NEEP Summit by the Sea in Middletown, RI. The two events shared primary messages. The Symposium featured over a dozen resiliency professionals and academics from New York and beyond gathered to address the question: How do we…
By Darren Port |
This post is a collaboration between two of our High Performance Buildings & Communities program staff, Darren Port and Christina Rohrbacher.
From the invention of the electrostatic generator (1747) to the discovery of oil (1856), Pennsylvania has a long list of firsts in the realm of energy. Now for the first time in nearly a decade, PA is ringing in the advent of a new statewide energy…