Window 6/Therm 6/CMAST Update

The Software Subcommittee kicked off the Technical Committee block on Tuesday afternoon with an update from Joe Hayden of Pella on the development of WINDOW 6 and THERM 6.

Hayden said that the goal is to obtain approval of the new software at the July meeting in Baltimore, and that completion of the validation research project now underway is a big part of getting them approved.

According to Hayden, the task group is working through a list of nine criteria that must be met to approve new NFRC software. These include:

1) Satisfying NFRC requirements
2) Conducting a cost/benefit analysis, which is 80 percent complete
3) Ensuring accuracy, which involves nine subtasks of which three are complete, with the remainder largely dependent on the validation research project
4) Conducting comparisons, which Hayden said is combined with #3
5) Assessing availability and reliability
6) Addressing documentation
7) Providing training and technical support, which will happen after final approval is achieved
8) Addressing availability, which will be same as WINDOW 5 and THERM 5 (free of charge, on the Web, etc.)
9) Upgrading/withdrawing existing software, and Hayden said that the task group will develop a proposal for the Baltimore meeting.

“We guess we’re about 50 percent of the way through the overall process, and we’re on a downhill slide now,” Hayden said.

The subcommittee also heard an update from Dan Wacek of Viracon on the CMAST Approval Task Group. Wacek said that the goal is to achieve tentative approval of project in April and to complete a pilot project by the fall.