|« Back to Article| Energy efficiency makes simple sense Houston
Chronicle | November 21, 2011 | Updated: November 21, 2011
6:46pm Houston City Council has a chance to save Houstonians
money on their bills and save energy - all at no cost to
taxpayers. Efficiency is easy to love. As council updates city
building codes, one of the most significant changes could be how
much energy efficiency is required of new houses: unsexy stuff
like how much insulation has to be in walls and around pipes,
how leak-proof windows and doors are, and how efficiently light
bulbs glow. More efficiency costs more money up front; and
naturally, there's a trade-off between the up-front costs and
the long-term savings. But the sweet spot appears to be
requiring 15 percent more energy efficiency than our current
code does - a surprisingly cheap-to-achieve level suggested by
the wonks at the International Code Council, backed by
Environment Texas and the Energy Efficient Codes Coalition, and
supported by council members Melissa Noriega