Research Subcommittee Get Things Done Virtually

The National Fenestration Rating Council’s (NFRC) Research Subcommittee met virtually yesterday during a special session that included over 35 members discussing and voting on two summary pages as well as other pending business.  Attendees took advantage of the virtual environment to elicit important feedback on projects in various areas of the fenestration energy industry.

Items Discussed

The Improved Validation for Surface 4 Low-e Products summary page will be reconsidered by the Test Lab Test Group. The Research Subcommittee advised the task group to consider mathematical methods and to further review other recent NFRC test ILCs before beginning to test products for better validation.

Additionally, the Research Subcommittee returned the Artificial Light Source Summary page, citing the lack of current need for this method and encouraging industry to pursue building such a device prior to NFRC funding research.

Finally, the Research Subcommittee agreed with a recommendation from the Complex Fenestration VT Rating RFP Bid Review Task Group not to accept a bid from the University of California at Davis (UCD). This recommendation resulted from UCD’s desire to share the intellectual property rather than turn over full rights to NFRC as required. The RFP may be altered and reissued in the future.

Conclusion

“One of NFRC’s goals in creating this special virtual session was to keep the development of our ratings moving forward,” said NFRC’s Meetings Manager, Cheryl Gendron. “The virtual format provides a venue for getting things done while providing cost advantages to everyone who participated.”