This is a notice of preliminary determination for the Adoption of Energy Efficiency Standards for New Construction of HUD- and USDA-Financed Housing: Preliminary Determination and Solicitation of Comment. The covered USDA Rural Housing Service (RHS) programs are the Single Family Housing (SFH) Section 502 Guaranteed Housing Loans; Section 502 Rural Housing Direct Loans and Section 523 Mutual Self-Help Technical Assistance Grants.
This Notice follows procedures established by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to update energy efficiency standards through revisions to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) for single-family and low-rise multifamily buildings and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)/ANSI/IES Standard 90.1 (ASHRAE 90.1) for mid- to high-rise multifamily buildings. The last updates to the IECC and ASHRAE 90.1 for HUD and USDA were issued in 2015 and revised the standards to the 2009 IECC and ASHRAE 90.1-2007. The current Notice adopts the most current industry standards at the time of publication, the 2021 IECC and ASHRAE 90.1-2019.
For further details, the following documents are available: