Selectmen move forward with stretch energy code

Date: 12/21/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW -- At their Dec. 15 meeting, the Board of Selectmen moved the town of East Longmeadow one step closer to becoming a certified Green Community by unanimously approving a motion to adopt the stretch energy code.

The Green Committee and the Building Inspector had already recommended the adoption of the code.

"It's a big step," Selectman Jim Driscoll, also chair of the Green Committee, told Reminder Publications. "In the future it will be mandatory statewide. We're just a little ahead of the curve."

This optional building code, adopted by the state in May, was developed in response to the call for improved building energy efficiency in Massachusetts. Towns and cities may adopt the code in place of the energy efficiency requirements of the "base" building code.

"The code is very, very beneficial to the town for stimulus funding with grants and for new homeowners," Building Inspector Dan Hellyer explained. "It will result in more highly efficient houses."

Hellyer noted that East Longmeadow normally sees about 40 new homes built each year, but only 20 were built in 2009. He added that a lot of additions have been built, though.

According to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS), the stretch energy code would require new residential buildings of three stories or less to meet an energy performance standard using the Home Energy Rating System3 (HERS). The HERS index scores a home on a scale where 0 is a zero-net-energy home, and 100 is a code compliant new home (based on the 2006 code).

The Commonwealth's stretch code requires a HERS index of 65 or less for new homes of 3,000 square feet or above, and 70 or less for new homes below 3,000 square feet.

"A HERS index of 65 means that the home is estimated to use 65 percent as much energy as the same home built to the 2006 energy code, or a 35 percent annual energy savings," information from the EOPSS stated.

Driscoll said the environmental and economic savings will be "incredible."

The code will not go into effect in East Longmeadow until July 1, 2010.

"I'm looking forward to the start of it [the stretch energy code]," Driscoll said. "This puts us a lot closer to becoming a Green Community, which could bring us millions of dollars in grant money."

The Green Communities Act was signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick in July 2008. The goal of the Green Communities program is to enable cities and towns to maximize opportunities to save energy in schools, city halls, firehouses and other public buildings; to generate some of their energy needs from wind, solar and forest trimmings; and to make other decisions that reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint, and ultimately, to put the Commonwealth at the hub of the 21st century clean energy economy.

Driscoll believes that the town will be ready to apply for Green Community status by the Annual Town Meeting, taking place in the spring.