A Wisconsin state appeals court said an Amish couple did not prove that their religious beliefs kept them from following a local building code in Eau Claire County.
A new building code in Boulder County, Colo., requires new single-family detached homes to have solar panels or solar thermal systems — or at least a conduit so the necessary wiring and plumbing can be easily installed later.
The California Building Standards Commission adopted the new 2013 state standards code that includes new energy code provisions, accessibility standards, green building, and water use modifications.
Roofs painted white can reflect heat and reduce warm-weather energy use, but in cooler regions like Minneapolis or Chicago, the issue of energy efficiency is less straightforward.
NSF International, an independent global organization that writes standards, and tests and certifies products, has published the first in a series of American National Standards for Ground-Source Geothermal Piping Systems – NSF/ANSI 358-1.
“Zero-net-energy buildings will become increasingly commonplace, in both residential and commercial sectors, as LEED and ENERGY STAR certifications have become too commonplace to confer competitive advantage among building owners,” says green design
Utah’s outdated residential building codes mean higher energy costs for residents. New homes built in Utah have to meet minimum standards for energy efficiency from 2006, and experts say a lot has changed since then.
All new residential construction projects for both new and existing homes in the state of Illinois will be subject to new IECC 2012 building code changes that go into effect on Jan. 1, 2013.
The city of Hailey, Idaho, is considering making mandatory its two-year-old voluntary Build Better program that provides extensive guidelines for building more energy-efficient homes.
