NFRC Technical Committee Approves Two CMA Ballots; Board to Discuss Tomorrow

After a relatively quiet start, the National Fenestration Rating Council's (NFRC) Fall Meeting heated up a bit yesterday afternoon during the U-Factor Subcommittee meeting. The discussion centered around NFRC 100 ballot negatives concerning the inclusion of having two rated sizes for each product line.

According to Randy Van Voorst of Quality Testing Inc., having more than one size would "muddy the water," because it would allow every product line to have two different numbers for U-Factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC).

Tom Culp with Birch Point Consulting LLC spoke in favor of having more than one rated size.

"Many commercial manufacturers feel that being restricted to a standard size does not correlate to their experiences with actual commercial sizes," Culp said.

Ultimately, the subcommittee voted against having more than one size. Mike Thoman, subcommittee chair, pointed out that the issue of rating actual sizes will still need to be covered.

"Disparity in the information we're putting out about products is what caused this …" Thoman said. "The commercial guys have a valid point and we will need to discuss it at some point."

The Technical Committee sessions continued this morning, and included a meeting of the Component Modeling Approach (CMA) - Technical Subcommittee. Much of the time this morning was spent reviewing and discussing a number of ballots. Two ballots, validation testing under NFRC 100 and frame grouping under NFRC 200, were forwarded on to committee for approval. The NFRC 100 and 200 ballots for non-standard products were returned to task group.

The Technical Committee, chaired by Jeff Baker of WESTLab, also convened this morning. Mike Manteghi of Traco, CMA Technical Subcommittee chair, brought forward the two motions to approve the validation testing and frame grouping ballots. Both carried and will next be sent to the board for its approval.

The NFRC's board of directors meeting, which takes place tomorrow, will conclude the group's Fall Meeting. Stay tuned to USGNN.com™ for meeting updates and reports.

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