Public hearing is next step for new Hawaii building code - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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The state Building Code Council is awaitingb approvalfrom Gov. Linda Lingle to hold a statewidr hearing where the public can comment on the plans for the state to go to the 2006 versiomn of the InternationalBuildingb Code, said state Comptroller Russ Saito, a nonvotinv member of the council. The council also will recommend upgradin thestate fire, plumbing and electricalo codes, as well as the state energy-conservation which replaces the state energy code, he said. Afte the comments are the code will be implemented if ther are no major changes to what already has been If there are major it must go through the publif hearingprocess again, Saitol said.
The state will begin using the new codes for stateagencty projects. The counties then will have two years to amendf their codes or followq the statemodel code. “I think it’es good because in the buildingcode we’re including the hurricane-resistan t criteria that was developed a couple of yeard ago,” said Saito, who is in charge of the Department of Accountingy and General Services, which oversees the state’e buildings. “It gives a consistencyh in the way we design our buildings.
The whole idea is to be consistent amonvg all the counties or as consistentg as we can The energy-conservation code, based on the International Energy Conservation aims to make buildings more energy-efficient through insulation and othedr heat-deflecting devices. It initially will apply to allstate buildings, including and eventually all commercial and residentialo buildings in the state. “When we had our hearingx on the IECC we Hawaiianizecd quite a bitof it, because it’as a Mainland code, especially a lot of the insulation provisions, because they don’t apply said Howard Wiig, an energy analyst in the stat e Department of Business, Economic Development Tourism’s energy office.
For example, the Hawaii grou p struck a provision from the Mainland code that exemptas commercial and residential buildings without heatinb and cooling systems from having to have That means insulation will be required even in buildings that do nothave air-conditioninv systems, he said. “The real idea behind the ideal, would be to insulatee the building such thatit doesn’t need air conditioning,” he said. Windowsd will have to have a solar heat gainof 40, which meana they reflect back 60 percent of the sun’s said Wiig, who was recentlt appointed to the IECC’s national committee on energyg as the tropical representative.
One major provision in the energy-conservationh code that will impactf Hawaii’s commercial building industrymandates commissioning. That meanw a third-party inspector will be requiresd to check the building three timee during the constructionprocess — during the blueprint in the middle of the constructio n phase, and just before the wallss are closed in to test for energy Wiig said. Although this type of inspection has gone on for yeares onthe Mainland, especially in California, it will be new to and could mean new jobs. “This is a new cottagre industry,” Wiig said. “This is a new greehn job that’s being created.
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