The Efficient New Homes Code is a ready-to-adopt pathway for jurisdictions seeking to cut residents’ energy costs. It is the first of three options for states and local jurisdictions that find the current model codes inadequate for reaching their goals.
For decades, the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) has been the primary model for states, counties, and cities seeking better building energy codes. But as energy bills rise, many leading jurisdictions are seeking codes stronger than the IECC currently offers or is likely to offer in the future. Today, they have a new option.
The Next Generation Codes Coalition, an ACEEE-led group of six states and several nonprofit organizations, sought to tackle the challenge by providing more advanced options for jurisdictions. Today, we release the Efficient New Homes Code Overlay to the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code. This overlay gives jurisdictions a tool to increase energy savings, reduce water use and air pollution, and improve comfort and health.
This code overlay helps states and local jurisdictions by translating the requirements of the established U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Efficient New Homes program into standard code language that can be readily adopted. Most jurisdictions base their energy codes on the IECC; this overlay shows how they can update the 2024 IECC to align new homes with the Efficient New Homes criteria, while using a code pathway they already know how to use.
Relative to the IECC, this code overlay aligns building insulation, air sealing, and equipment efficiencies with ENERGY STAR New Homes program levels. It adds water efficiency, quality control, and indoor air quality protections. And it includes requirements to make new homes ready for future installation of solar panels, electric vehicle chargers, and heat pumps. Future versions of the IECC are not expected to include these measures.
The DOE Efficient New Homes program was designed to reduce monthly housing costs. A typical home built to the new code can save about $1,000 on a family’s energy bills each year, reducing monthly bills by more than the small increase in monthly mortgage payments from better construction and equipment. As of the end of 2024, nearly 50,000 Efficient New Homes have been built across the United States.
ACEEE leads the Next Generation Codes Coalition, which includes the states of California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, as well as the City of Seattle, Enterprise Community Partners, the National Association of State Energy Officials, and the New Buildings Institute. The Coalition has relied on code experts from these jurisdictions and organizations in developing the new overlay.
The Coalition is now working on two additional codes: the “Near-Zero” overlay will maximize energy efficiency to further reduce energy bills, and the “Net-Zero” overlay will add solar and other provisions so a home produces as much energy as it uses over the course of a year, potentially eliminating energy bills altogether. These overlays will be released in the next several months. Together, the three overlays will give jurisdictions a ladder from meaningful savings to dramatically reduced bills to potential energy independence.
The Coalition is also preparing a user’s manual for all three codes to explain the requirements, and will publish economic analyses by climate zone for each code.
The work of the Next Generation Codes Coalition is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
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