, an independent research group that has been advising Utahns on public policy for decades. The IECC updates codes every three years, and they are considered a worldwide standard for energy efficiency in home construction.
if the IECC standard were adopted, saving an average of $325 per year. The report estimated the extra cost of meeting the standard would add $4,291 to the cost of a new home, meaning that upfront cost would be recovered in a little more than 10 years, or less if energy costs continue to rise. The report also said requiring the 2021 standard statewide would reduce 9.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 30 years.
Ford said earlier this year the benefit of extra insulation does not justify the cost. He said you can point an infrared heat detector at the higher-insulated wall and see no difference in heat loss vs. the current standard. “You hit that point of diminishing returns,” he said. Utah is at the 2015 IECC code level, but is one of the few states that still allows builders tradeoffs to lower the amount of insulation in exchange for including more efficient furnaces and water heaters. Most Utah homebuilders use those tradeoffs.
. A native of Germany, he said Germans have had strict energy requirements for new construction, which has resulted in “much more durable buildings, better performing buildings.”
Why should anyone care about 'energy' or 'pollution' when there's truck loads of cash at stake?
Never let it be said that they didn’t do the least they could do.
The reporting here failed to push back on this untrue claim from UtahHBA — the idea of a thermal “point of diminishing returns” simply isn’t true unless there was a failure of basic engineering elsewhere in the structure. Doubling net R-value of structure halves the energy loss.
At this point I'd be overjoyed to not see tent cities stretching all the way to Magna.
Yes. We need to stop building sheds with windows.
Henry Walker built our home and “claimed” to put in a higher R rating insulation or 2x6 walls. They didn’t do either and charged us for it and claimed the Thermwise rebates. The salt lake Legislature is ran by builders and the LDS.
1) Insulation is cheap, but has diminishing returns when you add more. 2) Building codes have energy loss requirements, which give homeowners options other than insulation. 3) most homes in UT lose energy through poor or non-existent weatherstripping.
Builders use the lowest end materials anyway.
We should build houses using only cardboard to cut down on upfront costs
Utah builders would build houses without ANY insulation if they could. Build em fast & cheap AF is the new construction model.