On April 25th, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced they had completed the review and approval process of an updated energy efficiency code for federally funded housing projects. These projects, an estimated annual 165,000 homes developed with funds from HUD or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), will now be required to follow the provisions from the 2021 IECC for residential or ASHRAE 90.1-2019 for commercial buildings. This update, the first since 2015, will dramatically increase savings for homeowners and renters in the Midwest and across the country. Single family homes will see average utility bill reductions of $950 per year, with units in multifamily buildings saving around $224 per year. The…
Off-site construction can decrease project time by 50% (Page 3) due to industrialization of the building components and the ability to complete site work, such as laying the foundation, concurrently. These time-saving benefits are lost, however, when there is uncertainty about who or how these structures and processes are inspected and deployed. Since the process of how these structures get commissioned varies from state to state and even city to city, each new project may encounter its own set of hurdles. The 1200 Series StandardsThe uncertainty caused by this state and/or municipal patchwork of regulations led the International Code Council and Modular Building Institute (ICC/MBI) to introduce the 1200 Series Standards for Off-site…
Origins of the Iowa Utility Policy Charrettes During the 2023 legislative session, Republican Iowa State Representative Lundgren raised concerns regarding Iowa’s ratemaking procedures, which had not been reviewed since 2004 despite significant changes made by the state legislature to utilities’ processes and regulations. In response, HF 617 was passed and signed into law by Governor Reynolds, mandating the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) conduct an independent review. The IUB then organized three policy charrettes, or collaborative planning processes, where all interested parties contribute to the development of a master plan. These charrettes were aimed at ensuring the provision of safe, adequate, reliable, just, reasonable and affordable…
