SPECIAL SECTION
• The state of Rhode Island Green Buildings Act identifies the IgCC as an equivalent standard in compliance with requirements that all public agency major facility projects be designed and constructed as green buildings. It includes ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1 as a jurisdictional compliance option.
• The state of Maryland adopted the IgCC to apply to all commercial buildings as well as residential properties more than three stories high.
Updates to the IgCC
The IgCC Public Version 2.0 offers a Zero Energy Performance Index (zEPI), requiring buildings to use no more than 51 percent of the energy allowable in the 2000 International Energy Conservation Code. In May, hundreds of code changes were heard at public code development hearings in Dallas. Significant changes to Public Version 2.0 include:
• The scope of the IgCC was revised to exclude Group R-2 and R-4 occupancies three stories or less in height above grade plane and all Group R-3 occupancies.
• Whole building life-cycle assessment is no longer a project elective and it is now an exception that essentially functions as an option.
• Stormwater management requirements were refined; most significantly they are now mandatory and not a jurisdictional option.
• Building envelope requirements including wall and ceiling insulation; fenestration solar heat gain coefficients will be 10 percent more stringent than the requirements of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).
• Air barriers will be required in all climate zones, eliminating the exception for climate zones 1-3 presently in the International Energy Conservation Code.
• The code will specify a single standard reference design for heating, cooling and service water heating systems using technologies with high, full fuel cycle efficiency as the baseline in each building component category.
• For dwelling unit and guest room showers, the shower flow rate is limited to 2.0 gpm for every 2,600-square-inches of floor area or portion thereof, while this changes for a 2,600-square-inch shower with multiple shower outlets.
• A new method was approved for determining pipe sizes and limitation on lengths necessary to provide for fast hot water delivery for hot water systems having hot water recirculation systems. This will make it easier for designers to provide hot water systems that are user-friendly so that less water is wasted.
• A code change was approved no longer to require that all gas appliances be vented to the outdoors, thus allowing unvented gas-fired heaters in buildings.
• Relocated existing buildings are required to comply with Chapter 10, Existing Buildings.
Final code development hearings for the IgCC will be held this fall in Phoenix. The IgCC will be published in 2012.
The IgCC’s cooperating sponsors are the American Institute of Architects, ASTM International, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Illuminating Engineering Society.
As the IgCC was being developed, two versions of the new code were released for jurisdictions wanting to implement many of the IgCC provisions immediately. The final Version will be released March 2012.
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