Yup, it looks like there's a law that 2nd story residential bedroom windows have to have a total opening area of at least 5.7 square feet (there's a rule about allowable ranges for width and height also, and a rule about maximum height from the floor (so that kids can get out the window if they need to, apparently). With all that, you have to know what to look for in the window catalogs to make sure that you're getting one that meets the requirements. Here are some links:
Here's a forum post by somebody else who got bit by this. He wonders at the unfairness that this rule delivers to somebody who wants to use double-hung (freaking wide windows). From this, somebody responded that you can get casement windows that look like double hung.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/build/msg0203235225198.html
By the way, what's with all the great building information on something called gardenweb?
Here's a forum thread where some newbie asks all the right dumb questions in the right order, and the whole process is laid out cleanly in the answers that the pros are providing. There's a link to the Andersen catalog, a mention that their model numbers with X meet egress code, and a link to a Pella catalog.
http://www.diychatroom.com/f19/egress-window-dimensions-26931/
Here's the Pella catalog:
http://www.pella.com/_layouts/1033/Pella/Documents/window-sizes/DH_25EESZTAB.pdf
Anderson has this uncharitable egress opening calculator:
http://www.andersenwindows.com/servlet/Satellite/AW/Page/awForm_CasementEgressCalculator/1272390718594#
Here's a bunch of guys arguing about the window to floor rule:
http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_inspection/building-interior-home-inspection-commercial-inspection/20209-egress-rule-date.html
Here's a post that does little but point to the Andersen catalogs:
http://evstudio.info/common-egress-window-sizes-and-operation/
This question about smallest casement egress windows with trim does not really get answered well, except for the suggestion to skip trim:
http://www.construction-resource.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7393
Here's the Andersen catalog. For some reason the X sizes don't look like the right window:
http://www.andersenwindows.com/servlet/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf%0D%0AContent-Disposition%3A+inline%3B+filename%3D400-casement-openspecs.pdf%3B&blobkey=id&blobnocache=false&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1232341690875&ssbinary=true
Somebody answering this question said that the egress windows are marked with a diamond in the Andersen catalog, which I never saw:
http://www.diychatroom.com/f104/egress-window-question-andersen-windows-comply-108399/
Here's the Simonton catalog, with links to PDFs of their catalogs:
http://www.simonton.com/Products/_ProductDetail.htm?a=2&i=219&wbs=
