UPDATED It is that time again, as the 2018 IRC & numerous other building codes have been published, the State of Illinois is now under the clock to adopt the latest IECC per the EEB Act. The timeline as it stands at the moment is:
September 2017 – Publication Date
December 2017 – Convene initial review and analysis (Conference Call 12/4/17 – see below)
January 1, 2018 – Commercial and Residential Commentary opens (Delayed — Meeting 1/10/18 on revised form & a presentation on significant changes)
January 18, 2018 – Page & form finally live (Official 2018 Notice)
March 31, 2018 – Commercial and Residential Commentary closes
February – April, 2018 – Subcommittee Meetings to review amendments (April & May Meeting Recap plus all proposals)
May 2018 – Review and compilation of commentary (Completed early July)
June 2018 – Council votes on amendments/submittal to CDB (July 16th initial meeting)
August 2018 – CDB votes on adoption/submittal to Governor’s office for review (required to be 1 year from publication)
August 2018 – Council gets final submittal
September 2018 – JCAR process begins 45 Day Public Comment Period Starts December 7th
October/November 2018 – Council/CDB staff review first comment period submittals
February 2019 – Final rules to Council/staff
March 1, 2019 – Code takes effect (per EEB Act)
Sticking Points:
With the exception of trying to keep the status quo (5 ACH vs. 3, 4′ insulation counts as 8′, commercial roofing issues) I don’t expect to hear anything major coming up on the residential end as there were so few changes. In fact the most notable is a softening of the HERS/ERI score (will now be 61 instead of the current 54/55) required for the alternative compliance path. With that said I do expect one member to try to discredit this path again but don’t expect him to gain much traction as many code officials & builders use this path plus it’s major support from the NAHB & local chapters.
The only other sticking point I can see is how DOE grades this version of the code – is it really more efficient than the others. So far the numbers appear mixed depending on who you talk to with some saying this is the first one to take a step backwards. I have a feeling it will be close & with the exception of the ERI score it will be incrementally better. As for making it to Net Zero by 2030, yeah that appears to be a long shot at the moment but that was always to be expected.
The Call:
The above schedule has been adopted along with the procedures (Illinois IECC Amendment Process) for submitting comments & some tweaks to the submittal form Proposal Form DRAFT (release of copy write rights & reminder of submitting one section change only per sheet). Interestingly one member wants to try rolling back any changes to the 2015 version (even with some talk of 2009) but I don’t expect that to go anywhere. As for the issue with the anti RESNET, well that might be a mute point but that introduces a major shift…
Illinois EPA is now in charge of education (instead of DCEO) with a full time staff of 1… As for how this effects training, where to get info of the code cycle (well besides this site) well that is being worked out during the transition. For the new site: http://www.epa.illinois.gov/topics/energy/index.