2024 IECC Cost Analysis for Single Family Homes

Published Wednesday, January 15, 2025

The 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) includes several changes which impact the cost of residential construction. The objective of this analysis was to estimate the added cost of compliance to build single-family homes in accordance with 2024 IECC relative to the 2018 IECC and 2021 IECC.

For the 2021 IECC, prescriptive compliance required compliance with section R408 using one of four prescribed additional efficiency package options. The 2024 IECC adopted a new format for R408 with a system of credits and a threshold with minimum credit number. The credits system enables a large number of compliance strategies depending on builder design choices and customer preferences. The cost comparison in this report accounts for the new R408 Additional Efficiency Requirements.

Home Innovation Research Labs estimated the incremental construction costs of key code changes using a single-family reference house with multiple configurations and in multiple locations.

Reported costs are representative of costs to the homebuyer. This analysis does not include any federal, state, or local incentives for energy efficiency.

Cost results are relative to the reference house characteristics, locations, and base codes used for this analysis. Results may vary substantially for other house designs and locations or in jurisdictions on an earlier version of the IECC or other locally adopted codes. Local market practices or consumer preferences may vary from the base code requirements and may impact cost in specific situations. 

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