Energy Code Compliance

Energy code compliance is where projects stall in plan review. The path you take, prescriptive or performance, changes what the design has to deliver, and choosing it late is expensive. We handle compliance from either direction and stamp the result.

What you get

• The compliance path that suits the project, chosen up front
• A completed, stamped compliance report in the format the reviewer expects
• The supporting load calculations, if you need those too
• A clear list of what the design must hold to in order to stay compliant

Every state is different

There is no single national energy code. Each state adopts its own: a particular edition of the IECC, ASHRAE 90.1, or a code the state has written itself. Local jurisdictions can amend it further. What changes from one state to the next is not just the numbers:

• Which code and which edition is in force, which is rarely the newest published
• Which compliance paths are permitted, and whether performance modeling is allowed at all for that occupancy
• Which documentation format the plan reviewer will accept
• Which software is mandated or expected for the submission

Getting this wrong is the usual reason a compliance package comes back. We confirm the adopted code for the jurisdiction before any modeling starts, and work in whichever tool that jurisdiction expects: EnergyGauge, COMcheck, or another as required.

Approach

Where the prescriptive path is straightforward, we take it: it is faster and cheaper. Where the design cannot meet prescriptive requirements (unusual glazing ratios, a process load, an envelope the architecture will not give up), we model the building and demonstrate compliance on performance.

Either way, the deliverable is a stamped report the reviewer can act on, plus a written list of the assumptions it depends on, so nothing silently drifts out of compliance during value engineering.

Scale

Single buildings through multi-building developments. The resort development in our representative projects covered seven new buildings plus two renovations under one compliance scope.

Working with load calculations

Compliance work and load calculations share the same envelope and system inputs, so running both together is cheaper and removes a class of discrepancy that plan reviewers look for. See Cooling Load Calculations.