Energy inefficient: bad building codes.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings - Home energy use - Brief article

Buildings constructed according to supposedly strict energy efficiency codes may not be terribly green after all, a new study finds. The research, conducted by the Georgetown economist Arik Levinson and published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, might well drain the batteries of energy-efficient building code advocates.

Levinson compared homes built under California's post-1978 energy building codes to California homes not built to those standards, and to buildings of various ages in other states not built to California codes, while controlling for factors such as home size and weather.

Proponents of the codes predicted reductions of up to 80 percent in energy use. But Levinson found "no evidence that homes constructed since California instituted its...