Southeast Region code consultant, Dick Wilhelm, kicked off the code update segment of the AAMA Southeast Region Spring Meeting by pinpointing where the bulk of the building activity was underway. Just over three-quarters of the building permits issued across the 10-state region in 2016 were attributable to four states: Texas (34 percent), Florida (24 percent), Georgia (11 percent) and Tennessee (8 percent).

The code status in the region as related to adoption of the requisite I-codes, is summarized as follows in order of the most active states:

Wilhelm pointed out that the 2015 IECC now includes the new compliance path of the Energy Rating Index (ERI), seen as an important evolutionary step toward a code based on whole-house energy consumption instead of a debate over specific values of individual components. The ERI value is defined as a numerical score in which the lower the ERI, the greater the efficiency. A score of 100 is equivalent to the 2006 IECC and 0 is equivalent to a net-zero home. The 2015 IECC prescribes ERI values ranging from 51 to 53 across the eight U.S. climate zones. Some states are adopting the ERI “as is” from the IECC, while others are increasing the required index in certain climate zones and/or introducing it incrementally over a period of years.

Also of importance is the fact that the prescriptive path for IECC compliance, which lists a number of specific requirements, may be preferable to the performance path, which uses computer simulation to allow for trade-offs among various component requirements to arrive at an energy budget for a building. In the case of windows, the prescriptive path is likely the best, because it imposes no limitation on window area, as does the performance path.

Also, in general, Wilhelm explained that “if products meet ENERGY STAR® thermal performance standards, you can sell them across the entire region.”