SE-14-C082 -- Verification of the Energy Savings from the Implementation of the Residential Building Codes in Texas PDF

The International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) was adopted in 2001 by the State of Texas to help reduce annual heating and cooling loadsin residential buildings. After 2006, the Texas Legislature required that the IECC 2006 be adopted and requested our Laboratory to track theannual energy savings and NOx emission reductions from the implementation of the Texas Building Energy Performance Standards (TBEPS).This paper discusses the verification of the energy savings from the implementation of the IECC 2000/2001 and IECC 2006 building codes inTexas using a utility bill analysis methodology. In the methodology, a sample of analyzed houses was carefully selected and separated into threegroups of single-family residential houses that were constructed by the same builder, with very similar construction types. Each group was built in adifferent period to account for the impact of the different adopted codes. This study shows that the electricity savings from the application of the2000/2001 IECC and the 2006 IECC are approximately 20% and 19%, respectively when compared to houses built to prior standards.