PE (always learning)
Senior Member
- Location
- Saint Louis
- Occupation
- Professional Engineer
I kind of discussed this already under the business management / estimating part of the forum, but felt that was not the right place to really talk about this subject. Moderators, please don't be mad if you feel this is a repeat of information, I've actually added several more points to my list.
The IECC has always been a thorn in my side to begin with, but now with the 2021 IECC my rage grows even more. The IECC in my opinion has good intentions, but promotes bad design and in the end I think is mostly fruitless in it's ideals to conserve energy. Several points I wanted to make below:
1) How much energy savings are we really getting with all of the occupancy sensors and daylight sensing controls being added on our projects when compared to the production cost and energy it takes to create them? I understand that for large facilities this makes sense, but it just feels like a lobbyist got into the codes and went crazy with trying to promote sensing controls on every little thing we design.
2) Now with the IECC 2021, we have to provide special metering on any new building over 25,000 square feet. These meters have to be placed so that they can measure each type of load on a project. For instance, we have to parcel out our loads on panels so that HVAC, lighting, process loads, receptacle loads, ect. are separated. What If I want to use a panel for mixed use and I have no other close panel to pull from? I think the IECC is promoting bad design and actually adding unnecessary cost to the project. Why can't the utility give us the same information from their metering?
3) I think that the IECC sometimes even conflicts with life safety issues. There was a dental office I was working on where we had a surgery room and the authority having jurisdiction forced me to put occupancy sensors in the surgery room. This felt like a major life safety issue in the fact that if the occupancy sensor shut off while the doctor was mid surgery it could cause some serious issues. I argued with the authority having jurisdiction, but they still made me put in the occupancy sensors.
4) They have now gone to all online and you need to register an account with them in order to do the COMcheck for the IECC 2021. I have no clue why they made this change. Downloading the program onto my computer worked just fine before. Now what do I do if my internet is down or their website is having problems? This really boils my blood that we can't have the program downloaded onto our computers anymore.
5) The IECC 2021 has been adopted state wide in the state of Illinois, but I'm doing a project in East Saint Louis (East Saint Louis is in Illinois for those who don't know) that still references the IECC 2009 on their building code website. Who enforces the latest IECC and what version do I use when their website clearly calls out an earlier one. I should probably use the latest code, but this conflicting information is annoying, why do a state wide mandate when all these municipalities have their own building code references.
I think that the IECC was written by bureaucrats who don't understand design and lobbyist who just want to promote the sales of their controls to everyone, which again, how much money and energy are we really saving when every building has to have special building control systems that take time and energy to create and design.
Vent over.
The IECC has always been a thorn in my side to begin with, but now with the 2021 IECC my rage grows even more. The IECC in my opinion has good intentions, but promotes bad design and in the end I think is mostly fruitless in it's ideals to conserve energy. Several points I wanted to make below:
1) How much energy savings are we really getting with all of the occupancy sensors and daylight sensing controls being added on our projects when compared to the production cost and energy it takes to create them? I understand that for large facilities this makes sense, but it just feels like a lobbyist got into the codes and went crazy with trying to promote sensing controls on every little thing we design.
2) Now with the IECC 2021, we have to provide special metering on any new building over 25,000 square feet. These meters have to be placed so that they can measure each type of load on a project. For instance, we have to parcel out our loads on panels so that HVAC, lighting, process loads, receptacle loads, ect. are separated. What If I want to use a panel for mixed use and I have no other close panel to pull from? I think the IECC is promoting bad design and actually adding unnecessary cost to the project. Why can't the utility give us the same information from their metering?
3) I think that the IECC sometimes even conflicts with life safety issues. There was a dental office I was working on where we had a surgery room and the authority having jurisdiction forced me to put occupancy sensors in the surgery room. This felt like a major life safety issue in the fact that if the occupancy sensor shut off while the doctor was mid surgery it could cause some serious issues. I argued with the authority having jurisdiction, but they still made me put in the occupancy sensors.
4) They have now gone to all online and you need to register an account with them in order to do the COMcheck for the IECC 2021. I have no clue why they made this change. Downloading the program onto my computer worked just fine before. Now what do I do if my internet is down or their website is having problems? This really boils my blood that we can't have the program downloaded onto our computers anymore.
5) The IECC 2021 has been adopted state wide in the state of Illinois, but I'm doing a project in East Saint Louis (East Saint Louis is in Illinois for those who don't know) that still references the IECC 2009 on their building code website. Who enforces the latest IECC and what version do I use when their website clearly calls out an earlier one. I should probably use the latest code, but this conflicting information is annoying, why do a state wide mandate when all these municipalities have their own building code references.
I think that the IECC was written by bureaucrats who don't understand design and lobbyist who just want to promote the sales of their controls to everyone, which again, how much money and energy are we really saving when every building has to have special building control systems that take time and energy to create and design.
Vent over.