Since August 2004, Illinois has had a statewide law requiring adoption of the commercial buildings requirements of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). At first it was in reference to the 2000 IECC, however since October 2007 the Illinois code is now the 2006 IECC.

The Illinois Energy Conservation Code addresses two types of building projects: 1) Privately funded commercial construction projects, and 2) State funded construction projects. Local municipalities enforce this code. The code is applied to commercial projects if a municipality or county requires a building permit for the project. It applies not only to new construction, but also repairs and renovations that require permits.

Local state governments can adopt their own energy conservation codes but they need to be equal or more stringent than the state code. This would apply even to the City of Chicago’s Energy Conservation Code.  Any edition of the IECC published subsequent to the state adopted edition is deemed as more stringent. Thus it is important for the professional engineer and/or architect to understand which code is prevalent in the municipality where the project is located.

Architects, engineers and contractors can demonstrate compliance by submitting the compliance forms published in the ASHRAE 90.1 User’s Manual; or Compliance Certificates generated by the U.S. Department of Energy’s COMcheck-EZ code compliance tool (version 3.4.2); or other comparable compliance materials that meet or exceed, as determined by the authority having jurisdiction, the compliance forms published in the ASHRAE 90.1 User’s Manual or the U.S. Department of Energy’s COMcheck-EZ code compliance tool (version 3.4.2); or the seal of the Architect/Engineer as required by Section 14 of the Illinois Architecture Practice Act [225 ILCS 305], Section 12 of the Structural Engineering Licensing Act [225 ILCS 340] and Section 14 of the Illinois Professional Engineering Practice Act [225 ILCS 325].

To help sort this out and to provide training, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) has set up a useful web site: http://www.buildingmedia.com/iecc/index.html

The web site provides a number of video presentations that deal with the Illinois Energy Conservation Code, COMcheck, Building Science, and Indoor Air Quality. You can even request this material on CD-ROM. There is also a useful “resources” page with a number of practical links.

Please note that some of the information on the Illinois DCEO web site may be out-of-date in regard current Illinois law with the relatively recent adoption of the 2006 IECC.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.