What is better for health and safety than a home that has good indoor air quality, doesn’t grow mold, and will keep this up for a very long time?  Sure energy codes save energy too but the real guts, in my opinion, are the pieces tied to building durability and health of the occupants.

I recently attended a presentation by our building code inspectors about the adoption of the 2012 IECC (which was gutted to the 2009 version by MT which is another rant for another day).  The takeaway was that they were not going to pay attention to virtually any of it since it is not health or safety related.  Basically we got a new code which improves energy efficiency (and integrates better building science) but due to the lack of knowledge about why and how we got here it is being blown off.

If you don’t understand something does it make it less important or true?

Ok, so not everything in the energy codes is directly tied to health and safety.  However, our homes act as a system and if you ignore one part of it that piece will affect the rest in a direct or indirect way. 

For example, if you don’t control the movement of the interior warm moist air or don’t control condensation potential on building surfaces you have mold or mildew show up and eventual rot of the building if bad enough.  Simple to address through exterior foam sheathing which, from the energy perspective, cuts out your thermal bridging problems.  There are other options too; all of which will save energy to some level or other.

Or another; code keeps asking for tighter homes, fabulous for energy savings, and with the 2012 IECC testing is mandated.  If ventilation isn’t addressed along with tightening the house shell then besides poor indoor air quality you can build up large amounts of moisture inside.  Once again we are heading down the road of mold, mildew, and rot. 

Or yet another; sealing our ductwork (especially if it is outside of the building thermal shell). Once again if you have warm moist air in the house then you have this same air in the ductwork.  If this supply side ductwork leaks in the attic then you have warm moist air (read energy loss here) in an attic which once again gets us into trouble with mold, mildew, and rot.  Or you might have leaks in the return side of the ductwork which is in an attic.  Now you are sucking cold air into the ductwork (read energy loss here) and anything else that is in that attic too.  No one wants to breathe fiberglass bits or mouse poop.  Duct sealing definitely seems to me to be health and safety related.

Personally I think the split in codes into the residential building code and a separate energy code creates the wrong impression and does the energy code a dis-favor; follow the energy code if you want but there is no benefit for health and safety.  These need to be brought together and made into a cohesive code which incorporates energy savings.

What good is checking the nailing pattern for the sheathing of a home when that sheathing will rot away in less than 30 years and the occupants will feel awful in the meantime?  Yes our energy codes save energy but they also are key to improving the home’s durability and indoor air quality.  Let’s champion them for what they are: Crucial to a home’s safety, durability, indoor air quality, and comfort!

 Codes without understanding are about as useful as this sign: