October 1, 2009

In January the City of Houston adopted amendments to the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code & Chapter 11 of the 2000 International Residential Code. As part of the city’s commitment to energy efficiency, the amendments included increased phased requirements effective October 1, 2009.

Beginning October 1, 2009, all new construction of Single Family Residential and Multifamily (3 stories in height or less) will be required to achieve a 15% minimum improvement in energy efficiency above the Houston Residential Energy Conservation Code.

During our process of meeting with stakeholders to prepare for the implementation of the changes, we identified some areas that needed some modification to ensure easier compliance. These minor modifications were approved by City Council on September 30.

A summary of the modifications to the code are as follows:

Deleting the 15% above requirement for additions  only new constructions will need to comply.

Allowing other above code programs in addition to the Energy Star program  this will allow for other programs when approved by the Building Official.

Allowing other software programs to evaluate above code percentage.

Decreased areas in the option packages to provide easier compliance, while still maintaining the 15% above code minimums.

Added a new option package table for Multi-family structures for electric resistance heating most multi-family new construction projects are built with electric compared to gas.

To assist in this process, we are also preparing a guideline and adding a supplemental page to the current City of Houston Energy Form for use with the option packages.

For additional information contact the City of Houston Planning and Development web site.

It appears that Harris County is taking setps to continue what the TRCC used to provide in the way of residential code inspections for new construction in its jurisdiction.  Watch this space and PEI will post new information as it becomes available.  Below is an email sent to PEI related to this new program.

 

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As the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) sunsets, unincorporated Harris County under the provisions of Texas House Bill 2833, will implement a Notification of Inspections process similar to TRCCs.  To facilitate this, Harris County is offering a training seminar for Builders and Inspectors.  The training will include the following:

.    How to Register
.    How to Login
.    How to Notify Harris County of the Completion of an Inspection
.    Useful Forms

This process of notification is very similar to the TRCC website process except, builders may have to login to notify Harris County as well as the inspector, and the residential structures are tied to the permit number obtained by the builder, not the builder's TRCC number.  All residential developments permitted on or after September 1, 2009 in unincorporated Harris County will require inspection notifications to Harris County.

There will be two options for training.  One option will be to download the PowerPoint presentation off of our website at https://www.eng.hctx.net/permits/bldgcodes/Default.aspx and the second will be to physically attend the training seminar on September 22nd or September 23rd.

The seminar will be held at the Harris County Flood Control building located at 9900 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX  77092 in Suite 100.  Please select from the two dates listed above, and contact Debbie Bledsoe at delta.classroom@hcpid.org to confirm your attendance.  There is no requirement to attend the training session.

We would like to thank you in advance for your cooperation.

 

Brinks Security Has Changed its name to Broadview  Security.  This comes as a result of Brinks Secuirty becoming a publicly traded company.

Get details from the Brinks/Broadview web site.

The reconstruction of our web site is getting close to as finished as it will ever be.  Yes there will be changes here and there, but we are getting the look and feel down where we want it.

Our web links page has now been re-posted.  It was down for a month or more.  Not everything that was there is there now.  I am surprised to find a few companies we have been recommending for years no longer seem to exist.  Other links were just out of date and those are either updated or removed.  I will be sorting through link requests and existing links to insure they are of likly interest to our clients and partners.  If there is somthing you don't see listed or if you would like a listing send us a note on the contacts page and I will review the request for implementation.

Special thanks to MakeItComplete.  The new web site is much easier to maintain and update.  Jay has been great and has done a great job in inital design as well as working with me to tweak things to my liking.  He is a real pro who has not problem steering me away form things I might think I want to do, but which might create real problems for future maintenance or performance.  Thanks again Jay.

The new web site is up and running to my satisfaction.  I am very pleased with Jay Jackson and MakeITComplete.  He has done a great job on the site and has been helping me to understand and tweak the setup to get it just right.  Some users have signed up for accounts and I have been slow to approve them due to my lack of knowledge about how the security operated but I have that more or less figured out so approvals should be more rapid in the future.

I have gotten at least one comment that the web site did not render properly on a MAC.  Since we currently operate on PCs I am inclined to make a snyde comment just for sport; however, I am informed that this great site was developed on a MAC.  I am having our consultant look into it and if there is a correction to be made we will do so.  If you find problems on the site please leave a comment or send me a note via our contact form.

Thank you for your business.  We look forward to working with you in the future.

The Texas Residential Construction Commission, highly criticized by the homeowners it was meant to protect, appears headed toward its demise because Senate lawmakers don't have the votes to keep the agency alive.

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