The report was conducted with support from the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Massachusetts (HBRAMA), who held a press conference of their own this past month at the State House. The press conference generated a lot of sensational headlines, the actual report paints a better picture. Key points from the report:
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Adoption of the opt-in specialized code is crucial to helping Massachusetts achieve statutory emissions reductions by requiring pre-wiring of new mixed fuel homes and avoiding higher cost future electrification retrofits
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All-electric single family and small multi-family homes are less expensive to build than those built with gas in both the new Stretch Code and Opt-in Specialized Code
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Multifamily projects maintain a low incremental cost of 1-3% to achieve Passive House as compared to typical construction, with available incentives from Mass Save often offsetting all of this.
- Several large non-profit builders of multi-family affordable housing noted that as developers, engineers, and subcontractors have become more accustomed to Passive House construction requirements and techniques, incremental costs have declined and will likely continue to decline.”
With that said, the report was still lacking in many areas and seemed to confuse aspects of the updated Stretch Code with the new Specialized Opt-In Code. PHMass, along with several partners, released a letter clearing up some of this confusion and highlighting were we found report misleading. You can read this letter here.