Optional Building Code for Energy Efficiency

Builders and designers committed to energy- and resource-efficient construction strategies have long struggled with building codes that mandate conventional practice, even when alternatives might be more sensible. A new addition to the Lake County, Illinois building code offers one solution to this problem—in a complete, take-it-or-leave-it package. Section 326, the “Advanced Energy Efficient and Resource Efficient Single Family Residence Code,” was adopted on February 13, 1996, giving builders the option to implement advanced building strategies, but only if they adopt all the strategies at once.

This new code was pursued specifically for the construction of Prairie Crossing, a new development by Shaw Homes, Inc. of Chicago in Grayslake, Illinois. It was written by Joe Lstiburek and Betsy Pettit of Building Science Corporation in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, consultants to Shaw Homes, with partial funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America initiative. Prairie Crossing is the first community-scale demonstration project to be constructed as part of that initiative.