Program Area: Enforcement and Compliance

Enforcement and Compliance

Once building energy codes are put into state and local policy, the work of the architects, engineers, builders, contractors, installers, and the rest of the building sector begins.  They are responsible for meeting all of the energy code requirements.  To achieve building compliance, effective education, training, and other tools must be created to reach out to all groups in the building sector.

Compliance begins with building design. Steps must be taken to make sure education and support are available to the architects, engineers, and other designers to ensure that they are designing code-compliant homes and other buildings. On the job site, builders, contractors, and subcontractors, likewise need to fully understand how to install required materials and equipment in a manner that meets code requirements.

Terminology

"Compliance” and “Enforcement” are two terms that are often used interchangeably.  However, enforcement is best understood as “compliance-checking” or “compliance verification” – which comes down to making sure that a building complies with the energy code.  Activities focused on compliance, on the other hand, support actions to implement code requirements during building design and construction.

The primary goal of promoting and supporting building energy codes is achieving compliance – reaching a point where homes and commercial buildings are built to the requirements of the energy code.  Enforcement activities provide a check on whether or not compliance efforts are successful. Enforcement can measure the level of compliance – and how successful compliance efforts are – but it doesn’t create compliance.

State of Affairs

Delivery of in-person classroom code trainings to individual groups is the most common state activity for addressing code compliance.  For many reasons, sticking to this as the sole compliance strategy misses a wide variety of effective opportunities to improve current practices.

Web-based training: Training via the Internet can be a cost-effective strategy for reaching a large audience.  Internet-based training can be delivered live or provided in a self-paced format for the user.  One source of web-based training is EnergyCodes.gov – the US Department of Energy’s code website.  The site includes videos for download on the requirements of the 2009 IECC and ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2007, REScheck and COMcheck basics, and the Recovery Act.  There are also self-paced courses, some with continuing education credits, available on how to use REScheck and COMcheck.

Field-training:  Taking code training on-site to actual building projects can provide hands-on experience with issues that are typically problematic for code compliance, including installation methods.  This approach can also create a forum for peer-to-peer learning and provide in-depth training that effectively builds upon basics learned in a classroom setting.

Informed curriculum:  As states work to improve compliance, it’s important to understand what requirements of the code are problematic for a particular region.  These issues can be assessed and fed into training curriculum on a continuing basis to keep training targeted to an area’s most pressing compliance challenges.