International Mechanical Code

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International Mechanical Code

May 21, 2026
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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
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“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

Basecamp Classroom

May 20, 2026
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Socialism Studies

May 19, 2026
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Campus Electric Bulk Distribution

May 19, 2026
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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

Cafe Crawl

May 18, 2026
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Statement of Net Position 2024: $685,683 (000)  | Leadership Organization  |  Master Plan



Children’s Rights Management

May 18, 2026
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The Icelandic Standards Body has proposed a new ISO standard: Children’s rights management (Page 45).   Public comment will be received until December 10th.

Háskóli Íslands Reykjavík

Icelandic Standards Children’s Rights Management Proposal

(Our response to ANSI at the bottom of this page)

 


December 12, 2025

Dear Madeline, Sara and Rachel:

 

Hope all is well.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this proposal.  This statement is our formal recommendation that ANSI find a way for the USA to participate.   If you need this recommendation on our letterhead please let me know.  I am happy to discuss over the phone at your convenience, also.

The recommendations listed below are informed by University of MIchigan and Standards Michigan engagement with ANSI and ISO for the better part of twenty years*.  I, personally, have met with ISO staff several times in Geneva over the past 20 years and have been graciously received.  I admire their processes and integrity of purpose.

Now, after having read the Business Plan, just a few bullet points:

  • The boundaries between children’s rights and education will quickly become fuzzy. The length of the list of incumbent references in the Business Plan reveals a requirement for cross-cultural sensitivities.

  • A US TAG will need substantial funding — usually a high bar for non-profits but less so for for-profit manufacturers, insurance companies, inspection and compliance.  The mortality rate of ANSI TAGs, from our point of view, seems high.

  • Viability of the project – using successful ISO work on Quality Control, for example – will have to track in regulations that fund compliance revenue.  It will take decades, at best half decades, for that to happen.

Looks like a lot of meetings.  We applaud Icelandic leadership.

Hope this helps // Mike

xc: Christine Fischer


 

* List of ISO projects The University of Michigan and Standards Michigan has been involved with since about 2010.

 

ISO/IEC JTC 4 Smart and sustainable cities and communities •  ISO/TC 48 Laboratory equipment • ISO/TC 205 Building environment design • ISO/TC 232 Education and learning services • ISO/TC 260 Human resource management • ISO/TC 267 Facility management •  ISO/TC 292 Security and resilience •  ISO/TC 301 Energy management and energy savings ISO/TC 304 Healthcare organization management • ISO/TC 336 Laboratory design

• INCITS ISO/IEC/JTC electrotechnology committees

Also: See our ABOUT

Norwegians in Michigan

May 18, 2026
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Scholar Works: Clifford O. Davidson

The 1943 American bombing of the hydrogen plant at Rjukan Norway — so that the Germans could not make a heavy water hydrogen bomb — resembles the 2026 American bombing of Operation Epic Fury.  Inspired by Norwegian family immigration to the shores of Lake Michigan we collect stories of those families fleeing the economic hardship of their homeland before the discovery of North Sea oil.

Relata:

Norsk Hydro: 1943: The Heroes of Telemark

 

Michigan West

Check Your Privilege

In the late 1960s, the discovery of massive North Sea oil reserves transformed Norway from a modest fishing, shipping, and hydroelectric economy into one of the world’s richest nations. Oil revenues funded an expansive welfare state and created the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.  This “outsized good fortune” should temper any sense of moral or cultural superiority some Norwegians express toward America. Striking oil is no guarantee of success — see Venezuela or Nigeria. Norway also benefited from American technology, open markets, and capital.

The United States further provided critical security: liberating Norway in WWII and leading NATO during the Cold War, allowing Norway to focus on welfare rather than heavy defense.  No student debt!  Arrogance ignores contingency. Norway’s success rests on oil rents, a small homogeneous population, high trust, and luck — not inherent superiority. America’s innovations and security role helped create the global order that enabled such fortunes in Norway specifically and Western Europe generally. Recall the American role in the destruction of the German heavy water refinement plants in November 1943 (The Heroes of Telemark) which bears an uncanny resemblance to the present USA Operation Epic Fury in Iran.

Gratitude and humility suit these discussions better than condescension.

 

 Norwegian fish balls — historic cookbook

 

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