Code Alert - ILLINOIS

[John Bowman]

The State of Illinois effective 10/9/07 has amended the Illinois Energy Conservation Code to identify the latest published ICC International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) as the minimum required state energy code. The current latest published edition is the 2006 IECC.

NEW REGULATIONS: The Capital Development Board adopted amendments to "Illinois Energy Conservation Code" (71 Ill Adm Code 600; 31 Ill Reg 6744), effective 10/09/07. The rulemaking implements Public Act 94-815, which amends the definition of "Code" to mean the latest published edition of the International Code Council's International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), excluding any published supplements.

[William J. Decker]

One point.

In Illinois, we have what is called "home rule". That means that any municipality over a certain population (I believe, 20,000) can set their own building codes and that they can be different from the state.

The only building code that applies state wide is the plumbing code (and, even there, Chicago has a somewhat different, and more strict code than the rest of the state). The state wide plumbing code is in place because plumbing does not dome under "building codes" but under health codes.

I will be interesting to see if the various local AHJs also adopt this standard.