Following U.S. Department of Energy cost effectiveness certification of the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) commissioned the Home Innovation Research Labs (HIRL) to conduct an independent cost analysis of the 2021 IECC. The report, 2021 IECC Residential Cost-Effectiveness Analysis 3 (HIRL report), was published in June 2021, and asserted that the 2021 IECC imposed builder compliance costs of nearly $12,000 and homeowner payback periods of up to 79 years, depending on climate zone.
This analysis is intended to “check the math” of the NAHB report using current cost data and widely accepted cost effectiveness metrics. To enable an easy comparison this report mirrors the HIRL Report structure, section by section and table by table, and is accompanied by a short comparison document titled Comparison of 2021 IECC Residential Cost Effectiveness Analyses, which also identifies concerns and issues identified in the HIRL report that were addressed.
