The New Washington Energy Code Requires What?!?
Washington’s 2021 Residential Energy Code went into effect this past March, and it contains some significant changes. You might recall hearing about how the code was going to make the gas furnace a thing of the past. Well, that hasn’t quite happened, though heat pumps have become very attractive from a code compliance perspective. There are also some changes to the prescriptive insulation and window performance requirements, but the final code language didn’t include the most challenging items that were in earlier drafts.
I predict that most new site-built homes in Washington will start including heat pumps. Gas will probably be a bit less common in new subdivisions, especially in locations where there aren’t already gas mains in place. Those homes with gas service will still have a gas furnace, but they will have a heat pump installed in place of an air conditioner. The heat pump will provide primary heating until temperatures drop, when the gas furnace will take over. We probably will be seeing heat pump water heaters and solar PV panels on roofs as well.
What does that mean for placing manufactured homes going forward? Fortunately, the federal HUD code preempts state energy codes and frees manufactured homes from having to comply with most of the changes I just outlined. Washington and Oregon both have land use planning laws that require local jurisdictions to allow manufactured home placement wherever a site-built home would be allowed, however they allow jurisdictions to enact ordinances that place some requirements on manufactured homes being sited in their communities. One of those permissible restrictions is that a manufactured home may be required to have a building envelope that is “thermally equivalent” to a home built to the state energy code.
Fortunately, we can demonstrate that the NEEM version 2.0 specs (aka NEEM+) deliver this thermal equivalence. Since the major changes in the 2021 Washington code mainly affect mechanical equipment and not necessarily the building envelope, we did not have to update the NEEM+ specs for this code cycle. The NEEM program has updated its thermal equivalence memo and has it available to factories, retailers and developers upon request. We already have had one city permit desk request proof of equivalence with the 2021 code, and we expect more will start asking soon. Four of the northwest plants currently offer the NEEM+ option, and we stand ready to assist any other plants that wish to get certified to build it.
As always, I thank you for your commitment to selling Energy Star certified homes. You can proudly say that NEEM homes are the most energy efficient manufactured homes in the country!