Permits & Compliance · October 9, 2026 · 8 min read

BC Energy Step Code: What It Means for Your Custom Home

The BC Energy Step Code is the part of the BC Building Code that sets how energy-efficient a new house has to be. It measures the whole house, not individual parts. For a custom home outside Vancouver, Step 3 is the provincial minimum. An energy advisor models the design before the permit and tests the finished house for airtightness before occupancy.

Key takeaway. Since 1 May 2023, Step 3 has been the minimum for new Part 9 homes across BC. Steps 1 and 2 are reserved and no longer apply. Municipalities can require Step 4 or Step 5. A separate Zero Carbon Step Code caps emissions from heating and hot water, with EL-1 required province-wide since 10 March 2025. Surrey lists Step 3 and EL-1 for single-family homes. Vancouver has its own Building By-law. Confirm your city's rules before design starts.

How the Step Code Works

Before the Step Code, a house met the energy rules by ticking off individual parts: this much insulation in the walls, windows of a certain rating, a furnace of a certain efficiency. The Step Code replaced that with a performance target. The Province describes it as setting a performance outcome and leaving the design and building team to decide how to reach it.

In practice, that means three pieces of work on every Step Code home:

1. An energy model before the permit. An energy advisor builds a digital model of the house from the drawings and shows it meets the target for the required step. That report goes in with the permit application.
2. Airtightness testing. A blower door test measures how much air the house leaks. Some municipalities require one partway through construction. A final test is part of the as-built report.
3. An as-built report before occupancy. The energy advisor confirms the finished house matches the model and hits its targets, and the city needs that report before it will grant occupancy.

The Province's BC Energy Step Code pages set out the path: every few years the minimum step rises, heading toward net-zero energy ready new buildings by 2032.

The Steps for Part 9 Homes

Part 9 of the BC Building Code covers houses and small buildings: generally up to three storeys and no more than 600 square metres of building area. A custom home almost always falls under Part 9.

The status column comes from the Province's Bulletin B23-01. It says Step 3 became the province-wide minimum on 1 May 2023 and that local authorities can still adopt Step 4 or higher. The 2024 BC Building Code sets the actual targets in Table 9.36.6.3.-G. It measures performance with two targets, a percentage reduction in heat loss and a percentage improvement in energy performance, and a house has to meet both. The 2024 Code also added new airtightness measures. The exact numbers depend on the size of the house and the climate zone, so your energy advisor reads them from the Code for your project rather than from a summary table.

One more point from the bulletin is worth knowing. A municipality can, by bylaw, let some Part 9 homes use the older prescriptive approach in place of modelling, mostly for rural areas without access to energy advisors. Where a city requires Step 4 or Step 5, that option is gone.

The Zero Carbon Step Code

The Zero Carbon Step Code was added in May 2023. It deals with emissions rather than efficiency, mainly from space heating, hot water and, in some cases, other gas appliances. The Province's Zero Carbon Step Code page and Bulletin B23-01 describe four levels:

For a custom home, the Zero Carbon Step Code level mostly decides one question: whether the heating and hot water can be gas. At EL-1 they can. At higher levels the answer is usually a heat pump. The Province notes that builders can work with energy advisors to see whether items like gas fireplaces, cooktops or dryers can still be included.

What Step Is Required in My City?

The Province sets the minimum and lets local governments require more, so the answer depends on your address and your permit application date. Here is what we could confirm from each city's own website.

Surrey. The City of Surrey's Step Code page lists Step 3 of the Energy Step Code and EL-1 of the Zero Carbon Step Code for Part 9 single-family homes. Surrey also requires a mid-construction blower door test for all Part 9 buildings before they can proceed to insulation inspection.

White Rock. The City of White Rock's Step Code page says new Part 9 building permit applications accepted after 1 May 2023 require an energy advisor. It also says three reports are needed: a pre-construction report with the permit application, a mid-construction airtightness report, and an as-built report. The page does not name a step above the provincial minimum. Unless the city tells you otherwise, plan for Step 3 and confirm with White Rock's building department before design is finalized.

Vancouver. The City of Vancouver issues permits under its own Vancouver Building By-law, not the BC Building Code. The by-law sets its own energy and emissions requirements for houses, and those are not simply a Step Code number. Confirm the current requirements with the city or your designer at the start of design.

For anywhere else, start with the municipality's building department. Ask which Energy Step Code step and which Zero Carbon level apply to a new single-family home at your permit date, and whether a mid-construction test is required.

What It Changes in the Design and Build

On a custom or high-finish home, most of what the Step Code asks for is specification you would have chosen anyway. That is why it tends to matter less here than on a budget build. It still changes how the house is put together:

• The envelope is designed, not assumed. Wall and roof assemblies, window performance and thermal bridging at balconies and large glazing are modelled before the permit.
• Airtightness is a trade discipline. Every penetration through the air barrier is a test result. Trades who are used to drilling through anywhere need to be briefed and supervised.
• Ventilation is mechanical. A tight house needs designed ventilation, typically heat recovery ventilation, and that has to be coordinated with ceilings and millwork early.
• Large glazing needs early modelling. The big glass walls common in contemporary homes are where a model is most likely to fail. That is a design conversation, not a site fix.

Our luxury residential construction and custom home building teams bring the energy advisor in at design stage for this reason. A model run after the drawings are finished can only tell you what has to change.

Conclusion

The BC Energy Step Code sets how a new home performs, not how it is built. Step 3 is the provincial minimum, cities can require more, and the Zero Carbon Step Code decides how far the heating and hot water have to move away from gas. Surrey publishes Step 3 and EL-1 for single-family homes. White Rock requires an energy advisor and a mid-construction test. Vancouver runs its own by-law.

Bring the energy advisor in during design, confirm your city's requirements at your permit date, and treat airtightness as part of the build rather than a test at the end. If you are planning a custom home and want the energy requirements built into the design from the first drawing, Book a Consultation.