Building Energy Standards Update

Vermont Building Energy Code Public Stakeholder Meetings

The Public Service Department has begun the next update to the building energy codes (Residential Building Energy Standards, or RBES, and Commercial Building Energy Standards, or CBES) with the target effective of 07/01/2024. The Secretary of State officially accepted the filings for the Residential Building Energy Standards and the Commercial Building Energy Standards.

The code update process included multiple opportunities to provide input and feedback. There were two public hearings, one for each code, held on December 2nd, 2022. These meetings were held remotely via Microsoft TEAMs. These meetings were recorded and the links are below.

CBES Public Hearing Presentation: Recording: Transcript
RBES Public Hearing Presentation: Recording: Transcript

The formal comment period ended on Friday, December 9: seven days after the public hearings. Comments were submitted through this webform (click here) or for RBES comments e-mailed directly to psd.codeupdateres@vermont.gov and CBES comments emailed to psd.codeupdatecomm@vermont.gov.

To develop the language submitted to the Secretary of State there were a series of Public Stakeholder Meetings. The public stakeholder meetings served to gather input and feedback from a range of stakeholders in the process of updating the codes.

There were two RBES public stakeholder meetings and two CBES public stakeholder meetings. The first set of meetings presented the proposed changes and gather input from the public for the development of the draft 2023 RBES and CBES. The second set of meetings presented a draft final version of proposed measures that would make up the 2023 RBES and CBES codes and solicit feedback. These meetings took place in April and late May, 2022 and were held remotely.

Background

The most current versions of the Residential (RBES) and Commercial (CBES) Building Energy Standards became effective September 1, 2020. The current Residential Standards were based on the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), 2015 with additional language from the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), 2018 and International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), 2021. The Commercial Standards were based on the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), 2018 with additional language from the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), 2021. Vermont statutes require that revisions be made promptly after the issuance of updated standards. In 2013, the Vermont legislature in Act 89 required the adoption of a stretch code for residential buildings to achieve greater energy savings than the baseline RBES. Municipalities have the option to adopt and include the stretch language for either residential or commercial buildings, or both, in the municipality’s land-use bylaws.Adopted Rule Documents

Updated 2020 Residential Building Energy Standards (RBES)

Updated 2020 Commercial Building Energy Standard (CBES)