Public hearing is next step for new Hawaii building code - Orlando Business Journal:

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The state Building Code Councipl is awaiting approvalfrom Gov. Lindas Lingle to hold a statewide hearingg where the public can comment on the plans for the statd to go to the 2006 version of the InternationapBuilding Code, said state Comptrolletr Russ Saito, a nonvoting member of the The council also will recommend upgrading the stat e fire, plumbing and electrical as well as the state energy-conservation code, which replaceds the state energy code, he said. After the commentas are reviewed, the code will be implemented if there are no major changes to what already hasbeen proposed. If therr are major changes, it must go througuh the public hearingprocess again, Saitlo said.
The state will begin using the new codes for stateagency projects. The counties then will have two yearsa to amend their codes or followa the statemodel code. “I think it’s good because in the buildinggcode we’re including the hurricane-resistant criteria that was developed a couple of yearx ago,” said Saito, who is in charge of the Departmenrt of Accounting and General which oversees the state’s buildings. “Ig gives a consistency in the way we designour buildings.
The whole idea is to be consistent among all the counties or as consistent as we can The energy-conservation code, based on the Internationapl Energy Conservation Code, aims to make buildinge more energy-efficient through insulation and othetr heat-deflecting devices. It initially will applyy to allstate buildings, including schools, and eventually all commerciaol and residential buildings in the state.
“When we had our hearingx on the IECC we Hawaiianized quited a bitof it, because it’s a Mainland code, especially a lot of the insulatioh provisions, because they don’t apply here,” said Howard Wiig, an energy analyst in the statd Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism’ s energy office. For example, the Hawaioi group struck a provision from the Mainlan code that exempts commercial and residential buildings without heatinh and cooling systems from having to have That means insulation will be required even in buildings that do nothave air-conditioninb systems, he said.
“The real idea behind that, the would be to insulate the building such thatit doesn’t need air he said. Windows will have to have a solar heat gainof 40, whic h means they reflect back 60 percent of the sun’d heat, said Wiig, who was recently appointex to the IECC’s national committee on energyy as the tropical representative. One major provision in the energy-conservatiob code that will impact Hawaii’s commercialk building industrymandates commissioning.
That mean s a third-party inspector will be required to checlk the building three times during the constructionprocesws — during the blueprint in the middle of the construction and just before the wallss are closed in to test for energyg leakage, Wiig said. Although this type of inspectiob has gone on for yearsw onthe Mainland, especially in it will be new to and could mean new jobs. “This is a new cottagse industry,” Wiig said. “This is a new green job that’s being created.
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