Efficient Windows Collaborative presentation addresses simulation tools, incentive program

Nils Petermann, project manager, Efficient Windows Collaborative, Washington, D.C., spoke at the Efficient Windows Collaborative Pavilion at Ecobuild America, Dec. 10, at the Washington Convention Center. His presentation, Efficient Windows Technologies and Policies, covered a basic introduction to energy ratings for residential and commercial glazing; standard incentive programs referring to those ratings; the role of simple and detailed design tools for commercial design; and trade-offs between issues such as daylighting, solar heat gain, heat loss and glare, and how the tools can help to reach a good decision for a building.

The EWC provides information that helps decision makers select energy-efficient windows. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's residential sector tool RESFEN and commercial sector tool COMFEN help users calculate energy performance of windows. More information is available atwww.efficientwindows.org and www.commercialwindows.org.

The EWC is a coalition of organizations, companies, and government agencies interested in promoting high-efficiency fenestration products. It comprises the Alliance to Save Energy, Washington, D.C., for communications/ marketing activities; the University of Minnesota for information products and technical support; AZS Consulting, Gainesville, Fla., for outreach support; the U.S. Department of Energy for funding; and more than 160 members.

For daylighting design and determination ofthe-right sized HVAC system, use detail modeling tools such as the DOE 2 or Energy Plus, Petermann said. COMFEN allows you to do simple modeling where you can specify your glazing options, he said. “For good daylighting design, get your lighting engineer, mechanical engineers, architect and specifier involved early in the process, to determine the best glass and the right HVAC system,” he said.

Petermann also discussed the Department of Energy’s incentive program of R5 and low-E storm windows volume purchase project. R5 and low-E storm windows are high-efficiency product types that are not covered by other incentive programs and Energy Star, Petermann said. “This project makes people aware of products that are substantially more energy-efficient than building codes, Energy Star or tax credit criterion,” he said. “U-factor for commercial codes is around 0.55, whereas this volume purchase project is aiming at a U-factor of 0.22. The problem is there aren’t many metal frame products that meet this U-factor of 0.22. This is aimed more at light commercial and residential.”

DOE facilitates these volume purchases by putting products on a Web site that qualify for these criteria, Petermann said. Then they contact potential buyer groups that would be interested in large volume of products and directs them to the Web site.

See related story on the volume purchase program.