Illinois Energy Conservation Code for Residential Buildings (Public Act 096-0778) was signed and passed into active law on August 28, 2009, amending the Energy Efficient Commercial Building Act. The new requirement for residential buildings was put into act and became effective on January 29, 2010.

This law required all new residential construction buildings with a building permit they received from a municipality or county to follow a state energy conservation code. Renovations, additions and repairs must all follow this new code in the Illinois Energy Conservation Code. This new code requires all interior designers and construction workers to follow the newest code book that the state has published to stay up to date. With commercial buildings local governments are allowed to adopt their own energy conservation laws. For residential however, they must strictly follow the Illinois Energy Conservation Code.  The only board with the power to update and change the state code book is the Capital Development Board.

The main reason this law was set into place was to help save and protect the environment. This law also helps reduce the amount of energy used up. Another plus with this new code was that property owners can reduce air pollution they create, cut back on the amount of energy personally used and to control their energy, electric, oil and gas supplies.

There are a few things that do get around this new code in towns that have to follow it. One exception there is, for example, is a historic building or a building that does not use electricity or fossil fuels for controlling the houses atmosphere. Under certain circumstances like these, you don’t have to follow this code.

Although this causes a lot of headaches for construction workers and interior designers, the pros outweigh the cons when dealing with energy conservation codes. Many of the pros that will come from these new energy conservation codes will not even be noticed for many years to come but it is in the future years that these codes will really make a difference. Economically these codes will be paying out dividends more and more in the future.

Many people look past how much energy they use up now and take it for granted that the supply of energy will never run out and the price won’t rise. However these people are in for a shock if codes don’t continue changing. With energy use the way it is right now, quantity demanded will easily exceed the quantity supplied in the near future. These codes are made to prevent this problem from even happening.

They do have some studies to show money will be saved in this process; well go into a little detail about one study. The average price of an American home is estimated to be around $267,451 for a home near 2,400 square feet. This study found that a 20% down payment, which is the average percent of a normal down payment, would increase around $154.78. Then a 30 year mortgage at 4.14% would increase by $3.01 on the monthly payments. But the amount of money spend on energy would move in a different direction according to this study. Not only would the energy bill not increase but you will save money. The estimated annual energy savings is estimated to come to nearly $243.37. This amount of money would be enough to cover the upfront cost of adapting to this new code in as short as three and a half years.

However, Illinois is a very complex state to monitor and decide how much energy should be used and how it should be used. The reason Illinois is more complex than other states is because the different climate change our state takes on throughout the year. Illinois has some of the coldest winters around and still we manage to get up into the 100 degrees at some points in the summer. From the coldest nights during our winter to our hottest summer days we require energy for both our cooling and heating systems. This is a problem that many states don’t have to deal with but we do.

Such things as the International Energy Conservation Code are necessary for the future of our economy. With our population growing and growing, this will call upon more and more energy sources to be used. That is why it is very important to activate these news codes as soon as possible and to abide by them when they become activated. The challenge of preserving energy will grow with time and that is why we must continue adapting our new codes.