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Construction companies throughout the state may begin to see more city building officials showing up at their job sites to conduct energy code inspections.

Stuart Crine, Iowa’s building code commissioner, said he suspects few municipalities’ inspectors actually conduct on-site inspections to ensure that builders are incorporating the energy-efficient features they claim in their project documentation. Recently adopted legislation could prompt more building officials to begin conducting such inspections, however.

Senate File 517, signed by Gov. Chet Culver on April 29 with an immediate effective date, broadens the state’s energy code requirements to apply to all types of new residential and commercial construction and remodeling projects, with the exception of the remodeling or renovation of single- or two-family homes.

Under the revised law, renovation and remodeling of all other types of buildings will now be subject to the energy code provisions, said Mike Coveyou, agency rules administrator for the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

“Under the previous code, even if you were doing a project specifically to improve the energy efficiency of a building, that was exempt,” he said. “So, for instance, you could put in more efficient windows, but you wouldn’t have to put in ones that met the state energy code.”

However, contractors are protected from having to expand their renovation projects beyond their intended scope, Coveyou said.

“There is language in the bill that makes it clear that if you’re doing a renovation project and say all you’re replacing is the doors, the code official can’t say, ‘Well, you also need to put in energy-efficient windows.’ It only applies to the project, not to other features of the building that otherwise wouldn’t be affected.”

Previously, the state energy code had applied only to construction of new state-owned buildings or facilities, any publicly owned buildings, buildings over 100,000 square feet and new construction in any jurisdictions that have passed local building codes, which is required of cities with 15,000 or more people.

“Now that the energy code is applicable essentially statewide, there will be structures that will come under the energy code that did not previously,” Crine said. “That doesn’t mean there will be a local code enforcement authority there to actually enforce the code. So it will be up to the home builder to ensure they meet the code if there is no one there to require that.”

The legislation also authorizes the building code commissioner to adopt sustainable design requirements, also known as green building, as part of the state building code. Those requirements would apply only to projects in which a state agency is responsible for funding or overseeing the construction, such as with a Vision Iowa-funded project.

New mandate

The measure also addresses local enforcement, with a requirement that building permit applications “shall also specifically include a statement that the construction will be in accordance with all applicable energy conservation requirements.”

“I think you can legitimately say that is a mandate that wasn’t there before,” Crine said. However, he said, he’s well aware that local inspectors face budget constraints.

“Even with the passage of the new law, I’m sure we will hear the argument that the resources are just not there to enforce the energy code,” Crine said. “Besides funding, the training is also going to be another hurdle to cross. Many times, a local building department will hire someone who is maybe a former contractor or with experience in the building trades, but it’s not likely they’re going to have formal or informal experience in energy conservation.”

Crine said one of his primary goals for a two-year energy efficiency commission that legislators approved this session will be to quantify the level of local enforcement of the energy code and to determine whether it should be more rigorously enforced.

“There’s just not any quantitative survey to tell us not only who is enforcing it, but to what degree they’re enforcing it,” he said.

Phil Delafield, head of the Des Moines Community Development Department’s permit and development center, said he’s still reviewing the implications of the new law. “I’m not sure we know exactly what it means to us at this point,” he said.

His office, like many in the state, accepts documentation that builders can prepare using ResCheck or ComCheck, software programs that analyze a project’s compliance with the code. Inspectors then compare the analysis with the plans submitted. They also conduct on-site spot checks for compliance while there for other inspections.

“In the future, we are looking to do specific energy inspections,” he said. “Our budget constraints are similar to most communities. The provisions of the state code are mandated, but they don’t necessarily provide a funding stream. So we’re looking at how to do that.”

Clive doesn’t schedule energy code inspections, either, but “with the new language, we’re probably going to have to schedule an inspection,” said David Churchill, the city’s construction services administrator. His inspectors, like Des Moines’, try to look at energy elements while they’re onsite for other inspections.

“We’re going to have to piggyback it on something else,” he said. “We may have to see the project in different phases to be able to show it met the requirements. It may be an ongoing inspection during the process.”

Creighton Cox, government affairs director for the Home Builders Association of Greater Des Moines, said consumer demand is clearly driving energy-efficient construction practices.

“Most builders are building above code when it comes to energy efficiency, some by as much as 15 to 20 percent,” he said. Most of the cities around Des Moines use the current 2006 version of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), though some smaller municipalities still follow the older 2003 code, Cox said.

“Even when a builder is building in two different areas, they’ll tend to build to the higher standard so they have a consistent approach from city to city,” he said.

A new voluntary energy rating program developed by the National Association of Home Builders, the NAHB Green Residential Program, was introduced in February and will be made available to all builders. Achieving the highest certification level in that program, Emerald, can equate to energy efficiency as much as 60 percent above the state code, Cox said.

States are under the gun to adopt more stringent energy codes. A federal energy bill passed last year authorizes the U.S. Department of Energy to write the energy code if the next version of the IECC in 2009 doesn’t require 30 percent more energy efficiency than the current 2006 version.

“There has been discussion as to whether Iowa ought to adopt more stringent standards than the IECC, at least for some construction,” Crine said. “I would have said a year ago that adoption of any of the international codes was a given. Now I’m not so sure that we will necessarily stick with the IECC unless it gets significantly more stringent. It’s possible we may even modify it before the adoption of the next edition.”