It doesn’t matter the size of the house that’s built, Builders are passionate about what they do. Zack Giffin demonstrates that in this conversation about tiny homes. In 2018 I happened to be at the code hearing where Appendix Q for tiny homes was adopted for the International Residential Code. This year I was asked by the state of Colorado to represent the energy code on a working group trying to figure out how to regulate the construction of tiny homes. It turns out that if they are built on foundations things seem to be fine, but when they are built on wheels there are issues that regulators and advocates must work out. Deciding if they are mobile homes or modular homes is the biggest issue, but in my world, the question is if they must abide by the International Energy Conservation Code. Some analysis has shown that they can easily meet the 2018 IECC using the Area Weighted U-value compliance alternative and the REScheck software, but now with the 2021 IECC tradeoffs are not as easy, and the insulation requirements would make the structure too tall to be on wheels. In Zack’s world regulating energy use in a tiny home does not make sense due to its size. I found it interesting that the fundamental question came down to first cost the same argument that the NAHB uses when pushing back against energy code. Regardless, ultimately the best thing about my conversation with Zack was that we did not agree on everything, but we were willing to hear each other’s views.

I hope you enjoy your listen.

Zack My Apologies for miss pronouncing your last name as well!

Zack Giffin’s website

Tiny Home Nation on Netflix

Zack on Instagram