The Responsible Energy Codes Alliance (RECA) has writing to the EPA to support and to recommend improvements to the proposed draft 2011 ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes guidelines.

Many of the proposed changes would make the ENERGY STAR program more consistent with the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the national residential model energy code that is currently being adopted and implemented by many states in response to federal energy policy and requirements outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

While RECA supports the improvements identified in the latest EPA draft, they also recommended that a few relatively small changes be made in order to maintain consistency among ENERGY STAR programs, and further changes to ensure that homes built under the ENERGY STAR program are no weaker than homes built to the 2009 IECC.

Detailed comments from RECA are on the attached Proposed Guidelines Comment Form