Maine’s Changing Codes – A letter of support from passivhausMAINE

As the Executive Director of passivhausMAINE, I champion our commitment to the education of builders and designers and to increasing the quality of our buildings, large and small. The resulting resiliency in increasingly unpredictable weather, the improved public health and reduced energy conservation weighing on the grid and home finances–those are our end goals. I also sit on the Technical Assistance Group for MUBEC and successfully advocated for adding the voluntary high performance standard (passive house) as a path to compliance in our newly adopted codes.

New construction projects represent an opportunity for us to lock in cost savings and drastically reduce energy throughout the life of the building. The recent work of our retrofitMAINE Initiative, which aims to improve and upgrade existing structures, has greatly motivated us to advocate for the highest standards when it comes to new construction. Seeing the cost of upgrading Maine homes and buildings after-the-fact is the reason I welcome the new IECC 2021 base code, which comes into effect on April 7th.

retrofitMAINE, as a part of phME, focuses on scaling low income retrofits. We currently have more than 500,000 units in Maine that require expensive upgrades and retrofits. Decades of wear, coupled with increased driving wind and rain, blistering heat and biting cold, create stressful and painfully expensive conditions to keep residents safely in their homes. Delayed maintenance problems are exacerbated with lack of air and water tightness, creating physical health as well as mental health complications. Let’s not add even more buildings to this list, which will need retrofits in short order.

All buildings are expensive. Buildings that are well insulated, water and air tight, and well ventilated are a silver bullet of sorts for long term health and security, and predictably low utilities costs. And with increased industry and workforce development, spurring advances in design and construction processes, the increased expense will be nominal, while the benefits are wide ranging.

The commercial building sector has had years to anticipate the coming building code updates. The affordable housing sector has already successfully transitioned to high-performance and passive-house-level construction. It’s beyond time for the market rate residential and commercial building industries to catch up. Materials and labor costs drive expenses, let’s use both of those conservatively by investing in longevity in our new construction for the greatest long term benefits.

We’ve witnessed recent attempts to soften the building codes, for example by voiding them for towns of a certain size. This is a fearful response to an uncertain future and will lead to a downward spiral. Moving forward with better building codes represents confidence in our trades people and other professionals in the built environment, and a commitment to better quality of daily life for us all. To that end, phME also supports the licensing of contractors, with required CEUs and support for municipalities’ Code Enforcement Officers and Planning Staff.

We have the tools necessary in Maine to meet these newest standards while further developing our own manufacturing, service and construction industries. We are working hard to support the educational component of that work, with builder and designer trainings, intensive workshops, monthly webinars and partner events.

For training opportunities, please visit passivhausmaine.org/trainings. Of specific interest may be the certified passive house builder training program taking place in Freeport from June 9 to June 13, or our municipal training workshops, available by request.

And let’s keep pushing Maine in the right direction when it comes to the standards of health and comfort we maintain for our homes and buildings.

Naomi CO Beal

Executive Director, passivhausMAINE