Descripción

Residential

In 2014, the City Council of Houston passed Ordinance No. 2014-5, requiring new residential construction to exceed the energy efficiency requirements under the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) by 15%.

There are several ways a project can demonstrated compliance with the 15% additional energy efficiency requirement, including:

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Program certification;
• energy code compliance modeling through approved software, along with testing the building’s thermal envelope;
• prescriptive energy efficiency option packages approved by Texas A&M Energy Systems Laboratory listed in the statute, among which include either a 4 kilowatt photovoltaic array or a solar hot water system combined with ducts located in conditioned space and 100% ENERGY STAR CFL indoor lamps;
• demonstrating improved compliance with Section R405 of the 2012 IECC.

Commercial

In April 2008, Houston adopted the City of Houston Commercial Energy Conservation Code based on ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004.