St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Editorial: How much more should an energy-efficient home really cost?
In July, the last month for which data are available, St. Louis County issued 68 new home construction permits. Those homes are being built to energy efficiency standards contained in the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code.
There’s now a new IECC code, intended to make new homes more energy efficient. It covers a wide variety of construction elements, from programmable thermostats to added insulation to more efficient lighting to less air leakage.
If the 2015 IECC standards were to be incorporated into the county’s building code and adopted by the St. Louis County Council, new homes built next year would be more energy efficient. This would be a good thing for any number of reasons, not the least of which are ever-rising electricity rates and global warming.
However, these more energy-efficient homes would also cost more — how much more is a matter of significant dispute. Homebuyers would eventually recover the added costs — but how long that would take also is a matter of major dispute.
In fact, the 2015 IECC standards are themselves a matter of some dispute. An obscure county entity called the Building Code Review Committee has decided that the standards are overly stringent.
