In what will undoubtedly feel like a nice holiday gift to local business owners and builders, state and local authorities are delaying the implementation of the new Title 24 Energy Conservation Code. Business owners in Southern California now have until July 2014 to get building or alteration permits approved without being subject to new Title 24 requirements. This is because there are some glitches in the compliance software that still need to be worked out.

According to a notice from the California Energy Commission:

“The California Energy Commission’s 2013 Public Domain Compliance Software must be used to complete the performance compliance approach of the 2013 Building Energy Efficiency Standards. The public domain software for the 2013 Standards does not yet provide the full feature set needed for building and alteration projects seeking building permits in early 2014. Further, time is needed for the building industry and local building departments to learn and adapt to the new tools. Implementing the standards without software completed and sufficient adoption time would place property owners and the building industry in an untenable situation by significantly impeding their projects’ design and permitting processes.

The revised effective date of July 1, 2014 will provide the building industry with the full complement of tools to comply with the prescriptive and performance compliance options, and sufficient time for training on the use of those tools.”

The postponement of Title 24 will give business owners planning to build or alter space an additional 6 months to get permits approved without having to worry about additional costly energy requirements. So, in other words, there is no longer any rush to obtain your permits by the end of the year.

Click here for all of the details. Happy holidays!