Good Night from the Big Easy

Day two of NFRC’s Spring Membership Meeting has drawn to a close. Have a good night, and come back to see us beginning at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.

NFRC thanks its sponsor China Southern Glass Holding (CSG), Co., Ltd. Established in 1984, CSG is one of the leading enterprises in China’s glass industry. The company manufactures and supplies all categories of architectural glass products, and it is the first and largest low-e glass manufacturer in China.

http://www.csgholding.com/en/index.asp

100A and 200A Return to Task Group

The Attachments Subcommittee brought the second day of NFRC’s Spring Membership Meeting to a close by discussing comments on the 100A ballot, which the Interior and Exterior Attachments Task Group presented to the membership this spring.

The subcommittee passed a motion to use six base case windows as directed by the Board of Directors. The 100A document will now return to the Interior and Exterior Attachments Task Group for future work. Furthermore, the subcommittee proceeded to pass a motion sending NFRC 200A back to the task group to resolve issues in the same fashion as with NFRC 100A (with the exception of validation testing which does not need to be included in 200A).

NFRC Uses Animation to Educate Consumers About Label

Today, NFRC posted an interactive animation explaining the NFRC Label to consumers on its home page. NFRC's own Cheryl Gendron lent her voice to the animation. You can access it at http://www.nfrc.org/LabelAudio/main.html.

Technical Block Underway

The Technical Committee block started with the Software and the Annual Energy Performance Subcommittee meetings.

The Software Subcommittee heard reports from NFRC staff on the CMAST Approval Task Group and Window6/Therm6 (W6/T6) Approval Task Group, then approved a motion to approve W6/T6 for CMAST (Component Modeling Approach Software Tool).

During the Annual Energy Performance (AEP) Subcommittee meeting, Chair Tom Culp posed the question, “Where do we want to go next?” After a discussion about the future direction of NFRC 901 and AEP, the subcommittee passed two motions.

The first recommends to the Technical Committee and the Board that a Task Group be formed under the Ratings Committee to develop an annual energy performance rating. The second motion called for revising the scope of the AEP Subcommittee, expanding it beyond just homes to include other buildings.

Research Committee Passes Numerous Motions

The Research Committee concluded the first half of the day by passing the following motions to:

• Extend the project completion deadline for the CMA Condensation Research project to the NFRC Fall 2010 Membership Meeting
  
  
• Extend the deadline for the TDD U-factor Research project to the NFRC Fall 2010 Membership Meeting
  
  
• Accept the Attached Awning Rating Research project and approve payment for the project to the contractor
  
  
• Approve NFRC 703 – Research Program Manual as edited with implementation upon publication
  
  
• Extend the Window6/Therm6 Validation Research project deadline to the NFRC Summer 2010 Membership Meeting
  
  
• Affirm the Research Subcommittee action on the Improved Algorithms for CMA Research RFP and return it to the author for revision per the comments received
  
  
• Approve NFRC 101 as edited and recommend implementation upon publication
  
  
• Approve NFRC 600 and recommend implementation upon publication (modified terms will be recommended for change in all relevant documents)
  

The committee then turned to the business of creating two new task groups – Daylighting Ratings and Ventilation Ratings – per the request of the NFRC Board of Directors.

Research Subcommittee Continues Business

The Research Subcommittee continued its business by presenting a number of reports on ongoing research. It then turned its attention to new business, including two ballots.

The subcommittee passed a motion to move the NFRC 703-Research Program Manual ballot as edited to the Research and Technology Committee and recommends implementation upon publication. After that motion, the subcommittee dissolved the NFRC 703-Research Program Manual Task Group because its work was complete.

Then, the subcommittee focused on a ballot calling for the issuance of a RFP for developing improved algorithms for increasing the accuracy of CMA methodology. After discussing the ballot comments, the Subcommittee rejected the ballot.

Willlie duPont spoke during the Research Subcommittee's block during the Research and Technology Committee's portion of NFRC's meeting. duPont discussed the status of a project concerning WINDOW 6 and THERM 6.

duPont spoke extensively about tests that are currently under development with the intention of developing new capabilities. In particular, duPont said there is an effort underway to calculate the U-factor and the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) of woven shades, venetian blinds, and fitted glass.

Moreover, duPont explained that Carli, Inc is performing NFRC 100 and NFRC 200 simulations. Carli, Inc. has studied approximately 64 issues.

Additionally, duPont said there are four main project tasks aimed at coordinating the data involved in this effort. These include the following:

1. Searching literature
2. Compiling and evaluating existing test results for U-factor and SHGC
3. Performing tests and simulations and comparing and evaluating results
4. Studying status reports and papers

This portion of the meeting concluded with Jeff Baker stressing the importance of getting this work done to keep WINDOW 6 and THERM 6 moving forward.

Task Group Discusses Terms and Definitions

The Research and Technology Committee block continued as the NFRC 600-Glossary and Terminology Task Group convened.

Task Group Chair Charlie Curcija opened the meeting, followed by Ray McGowan, NFRC’s senior program manager, who reported that NFRC is working to make sure that NFRC 100 and 200 are in good shape for ANSI accreditation.

Then, McGowan presented a report on NFRC 600 definitions being added back to all NFRC documents hosting NFRC 600 included definitions. McGowan said it will take some time to accomplish this task, but NFRC recently hired a technical documents coordinator, Robin Merrifield, to focus on maintaining NFRC’s technical and program documents.

The task group then turned its attention to the NFRC 600 Glossary Ballot. Where appropriate the NFRC 600 task group modified this document to harmonize it with AAMA’s AG-08, but kept some NFRC definitions as is.

After reviewing and discussing a handful of comments on the ballot, the task group passed a motion to move the document as edited to the Research and Technology Committee, which meets later this morning.

Discussion on Section 4.1 of NFRC 100 Starts Second Day of Meeting

The Research and Technical Committee Block kicked off the second day of NFRC’s Spring Membership Meeting this morning, with the Thermophysical Property of Materials subcommittee meeting to discuss two key negatives in the ballots regarding Section 4.1 of NFRC’s 101.

First, the meeting got underway when Joe Hayden of Pella Corporation provided a comment on disapproving the changing of the wording “highest” to “arithmetic average” in Section 4.1. Hayden said he believes it is in NFRC’s best interest to keep word “highest” to maintain a conservative approach.

Hayden’s point was found to be persuasive and substantive, and the motion passed 16-3.

Secondly, Willie duPont of Sunergy asked that NFRC staff edit Section 4.1 of NFRC’s 100 to ensure that the use of numbering is consistent. The issue here is that duPont believes the entire document needs to have each major paragraph numbered, the same way it is in other NFRC documents. This motion passed unanimously. Shortly afterwards, the meeting adjourned.

Welcome back!

Good morning, and welcome to the second day of the NFRC Spring Membership Meeting. Yesterday, the color guard started off the meeting in the right direction, and we expect today to be busy and productive as well.