International Mechanical Code

  1. Home
    2. Page 10
Loading
loading...

International Mechanical Code

May 21, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
No Comments

2024 / 2025 / 2026 Code Development: Group B (2025)

“Plaza Italia” 1971 | Giorgio de Chirico

 

After architectural trades, the mechanical technologies occupy the largest part of building construction:

  1. HVAC:
    • Heating Systems: Technologies include furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, and radiant heating systems.
    • Ventilation Systems: Incorporating technologies like air handlers, fans, and ductwork to ensure proper air circulation.
    • Air Conditioning Systems: Including central air conditioning units, split systems, and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems.
  2. Plumbing:
    • Water Supply Systems: Involving technologies for water distribution, pumps, and pressure regulation.
    • Sanitary Systems: Including drainage, sewage systems, and waste disposal technologies.
    • Fixtures and Faucets: Incorporating technologies for sinks, toilets, showers, and other plumbing fixtures.
  3. Fire Protection:
    • Fire Sprinkler Systems: Employing technologies like sprinkler heads, pipes, pumps, and water tanks.
    • Fire Suppression Systems: Including technologies such as gas-based or foam-based suppression systems.
  4. Energy Efficiency Technologies:
    • Energy Management Systems (EMS): Utilizing sensors, controllers, and software to optimize energy consumption in HVAC systems.
    • Energy Recovery Systems: Incorporating technologies like heat exchangers to recover and reuse energy from exhaust air.
  5. Building Automation (BAS):
    • Control Systems: Using sensors, actuators, and controllers to manage and automate various mechanical systems for optimal performance and energy efficiency.
    • Smart Building Technologies: Integrating with other building systems for centralized control and monitoring.
  6. Materials and Construction Techniques:
    • Piping Materials: Selecting appropriate materials for pipes and fittings based on the application.
    • Prefab and Modular Construction: Leveraging off-site fabrication and assembly for mechanical components.

Our examination of the movement in best practice in the mechanical disciplines usually requires an understanding of first principles that appear in the International Building Code

2024 International Mechanical Code

Current Code Development Cycles (2024-2026)

2024/2025/2026 Code Development Schedule

“On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat” | 1850 James Prescott Joule | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London

Representative Design Guidelines:

Michigan State University

Florida State University

US Department of Energy: Sandia National Laboratories

Related:

ICC Releases 2024 International Codes

Group A Model Building Codes

We are waiting for the link to the Complete Monograph for the Group A cycle in which one of our proposals (Chapter 27 Electrical) will be heard at the April 2023 Committee Action Hearings in Orlando.

Superceded:

Because of the larger, disruptive concepts usually require more than one revision cycle — i.e. 3 to 9 years — it is wise to track those ideas in the transcripts of public hearings on the revisions.   For example, the ICC Group A Committee Action Hearings were completed (virtually) in May 2021.  The complete monograph of proposals is linked below:

2021 Group A Complete Proposed Changes

Transcript of committee response is linked below:

2021 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ACTION HEARINGS ON THE 2021 EDITIONS OF THE GROUP A INTERNATIONAL CODES

A sample of the topics that need attention that involve the mechanical disciplines (e.g. energy, environmental air, water) :

  • Soil gas and carbon monoxide detection and mitigation
  • Minimum number of required plumbing fixtures in schools and higher education community facilities
  • Fixtures for adult changing stations and gender neutral toilet and bathing facilities
  • Fat, oil and grease interceptors in kitchens
  • Dormitories, residence halls

There are others ideas that can be tracked in the most recent Group B Hearings included April 6th:

LIVE: I-Code Groups Public Comment Hearings

Proposals for the 2024 IMC revision will be accepted until January 7, 2024.  We maintain this title among our core titles during our periodic Mechanical teleconferences.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

"Microgrids represent a transformational opportunity in how energy is generated, delivered, and consumed" - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

Issue: [Various]

Colleagues:  Mike Anthony, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Group A includes the following codes:

  • International Building Code (IBC) – Egress, Fire Safety, General Portions
  • International Fire Code (IFC)
  • International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC)
  • International Mechanical Code (IMC)
  • International Plumbing Code (IPC)
  • International Private Sewage Disposal Code (IPSDC)
  • International Residential Code (IRC) – Mechanical, Plumbing
  • International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC)
  • International Zoning Code (IZC)
  • International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC)
  • International Wildland-Urban Interface Code (IWUIC)

ICC Code Development Process: Important Links

 

Workspace / ICC

 

 

 

 

 

Climate Psychosis

May 21, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
, , , , ,
No Comments

“The only thing worse than religion is lack of religion”

— Edmund Burke

 

U.S. Global Change Research Program: Overview and Considerations for Congress

IPCS New Comment on Climate Change

European Geosciences Union: The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP7 

A conversation with Bjorn Lomborg, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, the president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, and one of the foremost climate experts in the world today. His new book — “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet” — is an argument for treating climate as a serious problem but not an extinction-level event requiring such severe and drastic steps as rewiring a large part of the culture and the economy.

How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! - Mark Twain

Dialectic: Climate Change

Mass Formation Psychosis

Centre for Studies of Climate Change Denialism

Readings

Brookings: Michael Crichton and Global Warming

Water 330

May 20, 2026
jia
No Comments

“At the Water Trough” 1876 J. Alden Weir

 

“A flood is nature’s way of telling you

that you live in the wrong place.”

— Some guy

 

Water standards make up a large catalog and it will take most of 2023 to untangle the titles, the topics, proposals, rebuttals and resolutions.  When you read our claim that since 1993 we have created a new academic discipline we would present the best practice literature of the world’s most abundance as an example.

The Water 100 session takes an aerial view of relevant standards developers, their catalogs and revision schedules.

The Water 200 session we examine the literature for best practice inside buildings; premise water supply for food preparation, sanitation and energy systems.

The Water 300 session we examine water management standards in selected nations with specific interest in educational settlements with proximity to oceans.

The Water 330 session we examine water management standards for swimming pools, hot tubs and spas in hospitals and athletic departments.

ANSI/APSP/ICC-11 2019 Water Quality in Public Pools and Spas

NSF International Water Standard Catalog

The Water 400 session will run through best practice catalogs of water management outside buildings, including interaction with regional water management systems.

The Water 500 session is a study of case histories, disasters, legal action related to non-conformance.  Innovation.


Water safety and sustainability standards have been on the Standards Michigan agenda since the early 2000’s.  Some of the concepts we have tracked over the years; and contributed data, comments and proposals to technical committees, are listed below:

  1. Legionella mitigation
  2. Swimming pool water quality
  3. Fire protection sprinkler water availability and safety
    – NFPA 70 Article 695 Fire Pumps
  4. Backflow prevention/Cross-connect systems
  5. Security of district energy power plant and hospital water supply
  6. Electrical shock protection in pools, fountains, spas and waterfront recreational docking facilities
  7. Rainwater catchment
  8. Water in extreme weather events
  9. Flood abatement systems
  10. Building plumbing codes (ICC and IAPMO)
  11. Water Re-use
  12. Water heaters
  13. District energy water treatment
  14. Food service steam tables
  15. Greywater
  16.  Residence hall potable water systems
  17. Water use in emergency shower and eyewash installations
  18. Decorative fountains.
  19. Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems

40 CFR § 141.92 – Monitoring for lead in schools and child care facilities

Since 2016 we have tracked other water-related issues:

  1. Safe water in playgrounds
  2. National Seagrant College programs
  3. Guide to Infection Control in the Healthcare Setting
  4. Electrical safety around water (cooling towers, swimming pools, spas)
  5. ASTM Water Testing Standards
  6. ASTM Standard for Water Distribution
  7. Electricity and Water Conservation on College and University Campuses in Response to National Competitions among Dormitories: Quantifying Relationships between Behavior, Conservation Strategies and Psychological Metrics

Relevant federal legislation:

  1. Clean Water Act
  2. Drinking Water Requirements for States and Public Water Systems
  3. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
  4. Safe Drinking Water Act

Relevant Research:

Real Time Monitoring System of Drinking Water Quality Using Internet of Things

UNICON: An Open Dataset of Electricity, Gas and Water Consumption in a Large Multi-Campus University Setting

IoT based Domestic Water Recharge System

 

Send bella@standardsmichigan.com an email to request a more detailed advance agenda.   To join the conversation use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

More

IAPMO Publishes U.S., Canadian Standard for Detection, Monitoring, Control of Plumbing Systems

Standing Agenda / Water

Natatoriums 300: Advanced Topics

More

Solitude Lake Management for Universities and Colleges

There are several universities in the United States with campuses that have property frontage on an ocean:

  1. University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) – UCSB is located along the Pacific Ocean in Southern California.
  2. University of California, San Diego (UCSD) – UCSD is situated near the coast of the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, California.
  3. University of Hawaii at Manoa – The main campus of the University of Hawaii is located on the island of Oahu and has oceanfront property.
  4. University of Miami – Located in Coral Gables, Florida, the University of Miami is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast.
  5. University of Rhode Island – URI is located in Kingston, Rhode Island, and has oceanfront property along Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
  6. Florida Atlantic University – FAU has several campuses along the southeastern coast of Florida, with some campuses near the Atlantic Ocean.
  7. University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) – UCSC is located along the California coast, offering stunning views of the Pacific Ocean.
  8. Pepperdine University – Pepperdine’s main campus is located in Malibu, California, right along the Pacific Ocean.
  9. University of California, Irvine (UCI) – UCI is located in Orange County, California, and is close to the Pacific Ocean.
  10. University of Southern California (USC) – USC is located in Los Angeles, California, and is not far from the Pacific Ocean.

 

When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everthing in me that is bewildered and confused. - Rainer Maria Rilke

Water Safety & Sustainability

May 20, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

No Comments

AWWA COMMENT PERIOD ON AWWA G480, Water Conservation and Efficiency Program Operation and Management Closes June 23

Harvard University Art Museum | In the Sierras, Lake Tahoe | Albert Bierstadt

The American Water Works Association is one of the first names in accredited standards developers that administer leading practice discovery in backflow prevention consensus documents; usually referenced in local and state building codes; and also in education facility design guidelines and construction specifications.

The original University of Michigan standards enterprise gave highest priority to backflow standards because of their central importance of backflow management to education communities; especially large research universities nested within a municipal water system.  Backflow prevention; an unseen technology that assures a safe drinking water supply by keeping water running in one direction by maintaining pressure differences.  Analogous to the way we want electrical current to run in one direction, failure of backflow prevention technology poses a near-instantaneous health risk for the contamination of potable water supplies with foul water.  In the most obvious case, a toilet flush cistern and its water supply must be isolated from the toilet bowl.  In a less obvious case, but at greater scale, a damaged backflow prevention technology at a university research building can contaminate an host-community potable water supply.

There are other ANSI accredited standards developers in the backflow prevention technology space — the International Code Council, the IAPMO Group and ASSE International — for example.

Backflow Preventer

At the moment no AWWA redlines relevant to our objective are open for consultation.  Several relatively stabilized product standards are marked up but none dealing specifically with interoperability issues.  When they are uploaded you may access them at the link below:

AWWA Standards Public Comment Home Page

Students and Young Professionals

AWWA is the first name in US-based water standards so we maintain the AWWA catalog on our Plumbing & Water colloquia.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [11-57]

Category: Water Safety, Plumbing, Mechanical

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Richard Robben, Steve Snyder, Larry Spielvogel

 

LEARN MORE

Workspace / AWWA

 

Gallery: Great Lakes

May 20, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
, , , , , ,
No Comments

The Great Lakes contain enough fresh water to cover the land area of the entire United States under 3 meters of water.

We collect 15 video presentations about Great Lake water safety and sustainability prepared by the 8 Great Lake border state colleges and universities and their national and international partners in Canada.

Tour Around Lake Superior

 

In a state whose land mass was formed by glaciers, has there been climate change in its 10,000 – 15,000 year past? Did the glaciers melt because of sport utility vehicles made in Detroit? We refer you to the Academy of Projectors described in Book Three of Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satire on academia in “Gulliver’s Travels”

Open water swimming: No sharks or jellyfish

 

Water 100

When the wicked problems of peace and economic inequality cannot be solved, political leaders, and the battalions of servile administrative muckety-mucks who report to them, resort to fear-mongering about an imagined problem to be solved centuries hence assuming every other nation agrees on remedies of its anthropogenic origin.  We would not draw attention to it were it not that large tranches of the global academic community are in on the grift costing hundreds of billions in square-footage for research and teaching hopelessness to our children and hatred of climate change deniers.

Before the internet is scrubbed of information contrary to climate change mania, we recommend a few titles:

“Gulliver’s Travels” Jonathan Swift | Start at Chapter 5, PDF page 235

The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania

Climate Change Craziness Exposed: Twenty-One Climate Change Denials of Environmentalists

Climate Psychosis

Gallery: Other Ways of Knowing Climate Change

 

Central Texas Brisket

May 19, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

No Comments

Grapevine-Colleyville Intermediate School District | 2024-2025 Operating Budget $172 million

Many students


High Voltage Electric Service

May 19, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
,
No Comments

Restore NESC Cross-Reference to the Front End of the NEC

Federal Power Act of 1920  Ω  Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.

IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee Ω Current Issues and Recent Research

Representative Sample of Merchant Utility Interconnection Requirements for Customers

2023 National Electrical Code Article 490 Bibliography

Ahead of the April close date for comments on the Second Draft of the 2026 revision of the NEC we examine thought trends on the following:

  1. How does “high voltage” differ among electrotechnology professionals?  Signaling and control systems workers have a much lower criteria than a merchant utility lineman than a campus bulk distribution engineer.  In other words, “high voltage” is generally understood in practice and essential for worker safety.  Labeling counts.
  2. What is the origin of the apparent “confusion’ about high voltage in the IEEE, IEC, NFPA and TIA electrical safety catalogs?  Is the distinction functionally acceptable — i.e. a term of art understood well enough in practice?
  3. How can the 2026 NEC be improved for engineers, electricians and inspectors?  There has been some considerable re-organization of low, medium and high voltage concepts in the 2023.  It usually takes at least two NEC revision cycles for workable code to stabilize.  Since education communities purchase and distribute higher voltage power on large campuses; how can power purchasing and customer distribution system best practice be improved?

This is plenty to talk about.   Join us today at 15:00/16:00 UTC with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

AC Power Distribution Systems & Standards | Credit: Power Quality Blog

2028 National Electrical Safety Code


IAEI Magazine: The Evolution of Electrical Services in the National Electrical Code®

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

Time Synchronization of Medium Voltage Substations

NESC & NEC Cross-Code Correlation

National Electrical Definitions

System Aspects of Electrical Energy

May 19, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
, , ,
No Comments

IEC technical committees and subcommittees Ω SMB Tabulation

IEC and ITU offices | Geneva

Much economic activity in the global standards system involves products — not interoperability standards. Getting everything to work together — safely, cost effectively and simpler — is our raison d’etre.  

Manufacturers, testing laboratories, conformance authorities (whom we call vertical incumbents) are able to finance the cost of their advocacy — salaries, travel, lobbying, administration — into the cost of the product they sell to the end user (in our cases, estate managers in educational settlements).  To present products — most of which involve direct contact with a consumer — at a point of sale it must have a product certification label.  Not so with systems.  System certification requirements, if any, may originate in local public safety requirements; sometimes reaching into the occupational safety domain.

Our readings of the intent of this technical committee is to discover and promulgate best practice for “systems of products” — i.e. ideally interoperability characteristics throughout the full span of the system life cycle.

To quote Thomas Sowell:

“There are no absolute solutions to human problems, there are only tradeoffs.”  

Many problems have no solutions, only trade-offs in matters of degree.  We explain our lament over wicked problems in our About.

 

IEC technical committees and subcommittees

LEARN MORE:

 

If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. - Nikola Tesla

ARCHIVE

The United States National Committee of  the International Electrotechnical Commission (USNA/IEC) seeks participants and an ANSI Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) Administrator for an IEC subcommittee (Multi-Agent System) developing standards for power system network management.   From the project prospectus:

Standardization in the field of network management in interconnected electric power systems with different time horizons including design, planning, market integration, operation and control.  SC 8C covers issues such as resilience, reliability, security, stability in transmission-level networks (generally with voltage 100kV or above) and also the impact of distribution level resources on the interconnected power system, e.g. conventional or aggregated Demand Side Resources (DSR) procured from markets.

SC 8C develops normative deliverables/guidelines/technical reports such as:

– Terms and definitions in area of network management,
– Guidelines for network design, planning, operation, control, and market integration
– Contingency criteria, classification, countermeasures, and controller response, as a basis of technical requirements for reliability, adequacy, security, stability and resilience analysis,
– Functional and technical requirements for network operation management systems, stability control systems, etc.
– Technical profiling of reserve products from DSRs for effective market integration.
– Technical requirements of wide-area operation, such as balancing reserve sharing, emergency power wheeling.

Individuals who are interested in becoming a participant or the TAG Administrator for SC 8C: Network Management are invited to contact Adelana Gladstein at agladstein@ansi.org as soon as possible.

This opportunity, dealing with the system aspects of electrical energy supply (IEC TC 8), should at least interest electrical engineering research faculty and students involved in power security issues.   Participation would not only provide students with a front-row seat in power system integration but faculty can collaborate and compete (for research money) from the platform TC 8 administers.  We will refer it to the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets online 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.

Campus Electric Bulk Distribution

May 19, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
No Comments

Today we will also cut through these transcripts:

2026 Code Panel 6 Public Input Report

2026 Code Panel 6 Public Comment Report

College and university campuses distribute electric energy in tranches of 10 to 250 megawatts; typically at voltages above 1000 VAC and are generally regarded as load-side services (or regulated utility customers). Two fairly stable sections of the National Electrical Code set the standard of care for these systems — Part III of Article 110 and Article 495.

We will examine them during today’s High Voltage Electric Service colloquium.

FREE ACCESS: 2023 National Electrical Code

We collaborate closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets online 4 times per month in European and American time zones.  Ahead of the August 2024 public comment deadline we will examine transcripts of technical action on this topic:

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

Hegemon Cuyahoga & County Dublin

May 19, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

No Comments

Financial Presentations & Webcasts

First Quarter 2026 Earnings Release | May 5, 2026

 

Here we shift our perspective 120 degrees to understand the point of view of the Producer interest in the American national standards system (See ANSI Essential Requirements).  The title of this post draws from the location of US and European headquarters.  We list proposals by a successful electrical manufacturer for discussion during today’s colloquium:

2026 National Electrical Code

CMP-1: short circuit current ratings, connections with copper cladded aluminum conductors, maintenance to be provided by OEM, field markings

CMP-2: reconditioned equipment, receptacles in accessory buildings, GFCI & AFCI protection, outlet placement generally, outlets for outdoor HVAC equipment(1)

(1) Here we would argue that if a pad mount HVAC unit needs service with tools that need AC power once every 5-10 years then the dedicated branch circuit is not needed.  Many campuses have on-site, full-time staff that can service outdoor pad mounted HVAC equipment without needing a nearby outlet.  One crew — two electricians — will run about $2500 per day to do anything on campus.

CMP-3: No proposals

CMP-4: solar voltaic systems (1)

(1) Seems reasonable – spillover outdoor night time lighting effect upon solar panel charging should be identified.

CMP-5: Administrative changes only

CMP-6: No proposals

CMP-7: Distinction between “repair” and “servicing”

CMP-8: Reconditioned equipment

CMP-9: Reconditioned equipment

CMP-10: Short circuit ratings, service disconnect, disconnect for meters, transformer secondary conductor, secondary conductor taps, surge protective devices, disconnecting means generally, spliced and tap conductors, more metering safety, 1200 ampere threshold for arc reduction technology, reconditioned surge equipment shall not be permitted, switchboard short circuit ratings

CMP-11: Lorem

CMP-12: Lorem

CMP-13: Lorem

Lorem ipsum

 

Welcome

Standards Michigan Group, LLC

2723 South State Street | Suite 150
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA

888-746-3670

DIRECTIONS

icon icon
icon icon
icon icon  
Layout mode
Predefined Skins
Custom Colors
Choose your skin color
Patterns Background
Images Background
Standards Michigan
error: Content is protected !!
Skip to content