The National Building Code sets out technical requirements for the energy efficient design and construction of new buildings and they’ve recently proposed a “tiered performance” model. Each tier represents an increase in energy performance over and above the current code.
By offering tiered levels of performance for a building’s energy consumption, provinces and territories can choose a desired performance level within the tiers to meet their efficiency goals, while still ensuring the implementation of energy codes across Canada. For example – builders can choose to install high performance windows and doors instead of increasing the insulation throughout the building in order to achieve the required overall energy score. In short, builders can choose an energy efficiency pathway based on the circumstances that suite their needs.
This tiered system will eliminate the need for jurisdictions to develop their own building codes to pursue their energy efficiency objectives. Also, municipalities looking to implement energy efficient strategies can easily choose a tier that aligns with what they are capable of achieving depending on the resources readily available to them.
These proposals make it clear than the NBC is guiding Canadian construction towards the higher performance levels expected by 2032.
“In order to prepare industry for increasingly stringent energy efficiency codes in the future, and to acclimate industry to the use of performance modeling solutions as a comprehensive compliance methodology, introducing tiered code metrics to the code will offer increased flexibility to authorities having jurisdiction.” – National Research Council
Greenstone ICE Panels offer a simplified approach to achieving the highest tier levels of the published 2020 NBCC standards. Traditional building methods become expensive when dealing with challenges like thermal bridging, multi-layered and thicker wall assemblies. ICE Panels provide a thermally broken, monolithic-type assembly with the highest thermal performance per inch of any wall assembly available on today’s market all while offering a competitive price point.
Interested in building with ICE Panels? Let’s chat! Give us a call at 204-726-1426 or send us an email at sales@gsbp.ca.
