Significant Changes Coming to the Florida Building Code – December 31th, 2023
Blower Door Energy Experts is the leading consultant for builders and contractors in Southwest Florida. We specialize in providing consulting services that help our clients navigate the constantly changing regulations surrounding blower door and duct leakage testing. Our team of experts is well-equipped to help you stay compliant with all permit conditions. We are dedicated to providing our clients with the highest level of service and support to ensure their success. Reach out today to learn more about how we can help you navigate the latest changes to the Florida Building Code.
This will affect air barrier and duct testing!
Everyone involved in the construction industry in Florida should be by now aware of the upcoming Florida Building Code changes. The Code will significantly change on December 31th 2023 and I wanted to address especially what the impact will be for the builders in Southwest Florida, as it concerns Form R405 and the Code Compliance testing that will follow based on these changes.
Form R405 is an accurate way of determining whether your projected build meets the requirements of the Florida Energy Code. This is done by calculating the values of many variables proposed within the design of the project, including but not limited to the type of construction, the insulation values, the size and type of windows, its location and orientation. These values are calculated and compared to a model reference home in order to determine whether the building is within the limits of the energy consumption standards set by the Florida Energy Code.
The main reason for writing this post is to inform you that Energy Calculations as you know them and rely on to start your building projects will be significantly affected by the adoption of the new code.
8th Edition (2023) FBC EC Overview
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Base Code is 7th Edition (2020) FBC EC
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It has parallel commercial and residential chapters (“CE” and “C” vs. “RE” and “R”)
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Continues to include three (3) main residential compliance options: Prescriptive, Performance and Energy Rating Index (ERI)
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Performance max. e Ratio = 0.95 (we’ll discuss stringency impacts later)
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Tentative effective date for 8th Edition (2023) FBC EC is December 31, 2023.
Performance Compliance based energy calculations.
A very large portion of all energy calculations are based on the “Performance Based Compliance”. Performance Based changes impact the overall performance compliance, and it will stringently increase from the 7th Edition (2020) FBC EC to the 8th Edition (2023) FBC EC.
In the new code edition, the “Performance maximum” will decrease between 5% to 10%. This will be largely due to the e Ratio of 0.95 that will need to be met to obtain a “PASS” on the energy calculations.
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Performance Based Compliance
[2023] R405.3 Performance-based compliance based on simulated energy performance requires that a proposed residence (proposed design) be shown to have annual total normalized Modified Loads that are less than or equal to 95 percent of the annual total loads of the standard reference design as calculated in accordance with Appendix RC of this standard.
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