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This guide to climate zones is an update to Volume 7 in the Best Practices series of guides for home builders produced by the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Program. This guide describes the climate zone designations used by Building America and compares them with the climate zone designations used in the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Building America welcomes reader feedback on all volumes of the Best Practices Series. Please submit your comments via e-mail to George James

Building America Best Practices Series The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building America Program is comprised of public/private partnerships that conduct systems research to improve overall housing performance, increase housing durability and comfort, reduce energy use, and increase energy security for America's homeowners. Program activities focus on finding solutions for both new and existing homes, as well as integrating clean onsite energy systems that will allow homebuilders to provide homes that produce as much energy than they use. In addition to the DOE management and staff, Building America includes seven consortia, four national laboratories, and hundreds of builders, manufacturers, and service providers. Building America works closely with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) and works with other federal agencies to coordinate research findings and disseminate information. In addition, DOE co-manages the ENERGY STAR Program along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These partners make the Program a successful source of knowledge and innovation for industry practitioners and government policy makers. The U.S. DOE Building America Program funded the development of this series of handbooks. DOE also funded the Building America consortia and national laboratories to form the basis for these best practices. The seven consortia are listed on the back cover of this document. The consortia have taken on the hard work of applied research, field testing, training builders, and transforming the results into building practices. Numerous drawings, descriptions, photos, and case studies originated with the consortia. Many builders have chosen to use the Building America process in collaboration with the consortia.

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