It was June 2003, and the newly installed chief building official of Parker, Colo., stood before a room of builders to deliver a message he knew they wouldn’t like. But Gil Rossmiller also knew they’d come around. He had a plan for energy efficiency, and wouldn’t need much money to make it happen. Rossmiller wanted them to think differently about buildings – as a system of integrated pieces, that interact with each other, and would do it best if designed in a specific sequence. He cited an example: when builders design air-conditioning systems without first picking the windows and calculating a building’s thermal envelope, they’re doing it wrong. He knew they could boost energy efficiency, add comfort, and save money.

Rossmiller went on to private consulting, currently with Shums Coda Associates, but left Parker, a Denver suburb of 55,000, with a method to ensure efficient energy use in buildings and a group of local builders who support it.

“We took logical steps, integrated them with existing processes, and learned together with our builders,” Rossmiller said. “Energy code enforcement is now just a part of the process like any other building code.”

These are steps most American municipalities have yet to take, he said – energy codes aren’t as well understood and complied with as other parts of the International Code Council’s International Building Code (IBC). For windows, doors, and skylights, also known as fenestration products, that’s in part because of an assumption that an energy-performance label from the National Fenestration Ratings Council (NFRC) affixed to a newly installed window is typically all that’s required for compliance. But the reality is that energy efficiency requires early planning at the design phase. And whilst leaders work toward top-down solutions for compliance, that’s not the only way to drive efficiency– consumers demand it. Efficiency isn’t just a best-practice ideal. It’s also good for business. 

Rossmiller first understood that when he was a builder himself. After working in construction, and then as a private-sector building inspector for a company providing that service to municipalities, he worked in the 2000s as a systems-improvement manager for a local builder struggling with moisture issues in its houses.

“We came look at a house as a system, and that you can’t change one thing in the system without impacting other parts of it,” he said.

Fenestration was central to the challenge for compliance. Rossmiller and colleagues realized they were designing HVAC systems too early in the process. By committing to first calculating a house’s overall thermal envelope, including the fenestration factor, they realized that they could cut HVAC capacity by half, and that solved the moisture problem.

“Customer callbacks for comfort issues practically disappeared,” Rossmiller said.

He took these lessons with him when he became Parker’s chief – and only -- building official in 2003. He aimed to boost efficiency through a greater awareness of and compliance with the International Energy Conservation Code, one element of the IBC. Rossmiller convened builders working in Parker for training sessions given for free by product suppliers, for goods such as house wrap and insulation.

Together, he and builders learned more about defining a building’s thermal envelope, such as considering whether crawlspaces, attics, and HVAC ductwork would be placed inside or outside that envelope. They then moved on to other elements of the building process, and Rossmiller gave buildings time for adaptation before enforcement. By 2006, most of those builders were producing houses at least 15 percent more efficient, and often qualifying for ENERGY STAR® status.

“They resisted at first, but many later told me they’ll never go back to the old ways,” Rossmiller said.

Municipalities that follow the international family of building codes, and make clear that what will be inspected, will eventually find that training and inspection becomes less necessary over time.

Targeting efficiency is increasingly easy, Rossmiller said, given the natural improvements vendors make to their windows, doors, house wrap, and other materials. And code inspectors today have more tools, especially on-site. When Rossmiller was a young code inspector, he’d have to do longhand math on paper during inspections and didn’t have a smartphone available to look up code specifics. This combination of improved products and readily-available technical information should help today’s young building inspectors to better understand what they see in the field, and also create an opportunity to simplify and clarify the building codes themselves.