The National Fenestration Rating Council’s (NFRC) Blind Verification Program (BVP) has been renamed, and will now be known as the Independent Verification Program (IVP).
In April of this year, NFRC announced that as an approved Certification Body for the ENERGY STAR ® Windows program, it was required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to introduce a Blind Verification Program (BVP) to the NFRC Product Certification Program (PCP).
As you may recall, the BVP required NFRC staff to act as consumers, “blindly” purchasing its participants’ fenestration products without their knowledge.
Since its inception, however, NFRC and EPA have refined the program and determined that the IVP designation describes its purpose more accurately.
One reason for the change from BVP to IVP is that the process NFRC will use to procure fenestration products from manufacturers will no longer be “blind.” Staff and the NFRC Board of Directors have instead created a new process, whereby NFRC will make purchases more directly, negating the “blind” aspect of the process.
A second reason for the elimination of the term “blind” is that the term may be misunderstood by fenestration industry, the fenestration attachment industry, or the public. We wish to avoid any potential communication issues.
NFRC realizes you may have more detailed questions regarding this change. Please contact Stacy Germann at 240-821-9504 or Scott Hanlon at 240-821-9519.
