Act Now to Save Water and Energy

Posted by Jim Gunshinan on August 19, 2013

The International Code Council is in the process of developing the 2015 codes. A large number of code change proposals will be considered at the Final Action Hearing, which is being held at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The FAH is scheduled to begin on October 2 and conclude by October 10, 2013. For more information go to www.iccsafe.org.

The International Energy Conservation Code, both Residential and Commercial chapters (IECC-R, IECC-C) and the International Residential Code (IRC) are among the codes being considered at this hearing. Your voice and the votes of your local code officials are needed for this process to be most effective.

Gary Klein, Affiliated International Management, LLC has made us aware that there are several code changes related to improving hot water systems that will be discussed. This is particularly important this code cycle because, once the building envelope and HVAC equipment are built to code, hot water is the next largest energy use that is the responsibility of builders in new construction. The proposals to be discussed fall into five groups:

Insulating hot water piping from the source of hot water to plumbing fixtures and appliances;
Requiring that the controls for hot water circulation and electric heat trace systems be energy efficient;
Identifying the standards applicable to drain water heat recovery equipment;
Limiting the volume of hot water in the piping from the the nearest source of hot water to each plumbing fixture or appliance; and
Allowing improved hot water distribution systems and drain water heat recovery to become part of the performance path.

Also from Klein: For those of you who are in jurisdictions that use the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) or the Uniform Mechanical Code (UMC), they are also in the middle of the 2015 code development cycle. As with the ICC, there are several proposals related to improved hot water systems. For more information on the code process, click here.

The proposals will be discussed as part of the 84th Annual Education and Business Conference scheduled to be held in Kansas City, Missouri September 29-October 2, 2013. Click here for more information on the conference.

Please post comments and questions on the IECC and UPC proposals in the blog comment section, or e-mail Gary with your comments and questions at Gary@aim4sustainability.com.

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