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CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION, Dec. 2009
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The Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes (CCBFC), following consultations with the provinces and territories, has decided that energy efficiency will be considered as a new objective in the National Construction Codes and has agreed on the approach it will follow in developing requirements.
A new edition of the National Energy Code for Buildings (NECB) will be published in 2011 (see Construction Innovation, June 2009). One of the main steps is to develop an energy efficiency objective, as energy efficiency does not fit within the four current objectives of the Codes (accessibility, safety, health, fire and structural protection of buildings). This is being done using a protocol adopted by the CCBFC last spring to enable the addition of new objectives to the Codes (see box). The objective will form the basis for energy efficiency requirements in both buildings and houses.
The energy efficiency objective will be developed by a joint task group established by the CCBFC and the Provincial/Territorial Policy Advisory Committee on Codes (PTPACC). The task group is considering the results of a bottom-up analysis of the 1997 Model National Energy Code for Buildings and working to finalize the proposed new sub-objectives and functional statements. Meanwhile, a CCBFC standing committee is moving forward on developing proposed changes for the NECB. Consultations on the new objective and its functional statements, as well as the proposed changes, will take place during the fall 2010 public review.
Protocol developed to add new objectives to Codes
Until recently, it was not possible for the CCBFC to address requests to add energy efficiency and water use efficiency to the National Construction Codes, as these topics did not fit within the four existing approved objectives of the Codes (safety, health, accessibility, fire and structural protection of buildings). An objective-based code states what the Code is meant to achieve by clarifying the objective and intent behind its requirements, thus being more accommodating to innovation. As a result, requirements that are not related to an approved objective could not be included in the Code. An approach was therefore required to allow for new objectives to be properly considered and added.
As a result, last spring, the CCBFC developed a six-step protocol that outlines what needs to be done in order to consider and establish a new objective, so that the result is responsive to provincial/territorial needs and transparent to all stakeholders. These include: consulting with the provinces and territories on new requests, developing the objective, and submitting it to full public review. The protocol is now being used to develop an energy efficiency objective that will form the basis for energy efficiency requirements for both houses and buildings.
As for the Model National Energy Codes for Houses, its fate was determined after consulting with PTPACC. A new edition will not be published, as the CCBFC has agreed that provisions dealing with energy efficiency for housing will be incorporated into a separate section of Part 9 of the 2010 National Building Code of Canada (NBC) and will be published in 2012. A joint task group between the Standing Committees on Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Housing and Small Buildings has been created to develop the technical requirements that should be available for public review in the fall of 2011.
Finally, the CCBFC also made a decision on the scope of the NECB at its September 2009 meeting, as it was slightly different from how the NBC is organized. To ensure that the two documents are exactly aligned, requirements relating to small, non-residential buildings will be excluded from the NECB 2011 and instead incorporated into Part 9 of the NBC, along with those related to housing.
For more information on this project, please contact Cathy Taraschuk at 613-993-0049 or cathleen.taraschuk@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.
