Development of a Residential Code-compliant Web-based Energy Efficiency Calculator for Texas

Abstract

Since 2001, Texas has been proactive in initiating clean air and energy efficiency-in buildings policies. The Texas Emissions Reduction Plan legislation of 2001 mandated statewide adoption of energy codes; created a 5% annual energy savings goal for public facilities in affected counties through 2007, and provided approximately $150 million in cash incentives for clean diesel emissions grants and energy research. Texas, as part of the TERP, also proposed calculating creditable Nitrogen Oxides emissions reduction credits for energy efficiency and renewable energy through the State Implementation Plan under the Federal Clean Air Act. Residential energy codes create more energy-efficient homes and thus reduce emissions from savings in electricity generation and the burning of on-site natural gas. Since 2001, Texas energy code programs have partially transformed the housing market in Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston with 30,000 Energy Star homes (approximately 27%) in 2006, which have reduced emissions from building energy efficient homes, and created new manufacturing jobs for energy-efficient equipment and windows. However, several obstacles remain to realizing a total market transformation: the market value of energy efficiency is not uniformly assigned, and there is a lack of consumer awareness to achieve market transformation. Therefore, certain old construction practices remain entrenched. To overcome some of these obstacles, the International Code Compliance Calculator (IC3) was created. The objectives of IC3 are to: 1) increase the number of homes built in Texas with a target energy performance better than the 2000/2001 IECC baseline1; 2) increase the number of builders and building officials familiar with high performance home building options, technologies and quality assurance requirements; 3) increase the number of builders constructing and marketing high performance homes; and 4) quantify NOx emissions reduction from the energy efficiency measures recorded and verified for each house constructed with IC3. This paper presents information on the design and operation of the IC3 system.