The National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) has been working for almost 3 years to create the NFRC 713 program document that will administer the IVP to verify ENERGY STAR® qualified products’ energy performance. NFRC used the results from the IVP pilot program and comments from the NFRC participants to modify the NFRC 713 and believes this draft provides a fair process for all NFRC entities.
NFRC participants are encouraged to download the NFRC 713 document for review from the IVP web page.
To assist with the review, the following are some of the modifications from the draft of the NFRC 713 distributed in March:
• The IVP
is now completely separate from the NFRC 700.
• The IVP fee is separate from the NFRC participation fee per NFRC 704-2013.
• The IVP is for ENERGY STAR Partners only and use to verify ENERGY STAR qualified products.
• The only verification test is a thermal test performed in accordance with NFRC 102 and is the only value verification used for EPA evaluation.
• The destructive test has been removed as a verification test; however, it is still performed by the lab for comparison and evaluation purposes.
• ENERGY STAR Partners are required to inform NFRC which ENERGY STAR qualified product lines are sold as ENERGY STAR products. NFRC is developing an online tool for participants to use which will be available shortly.
• There is no grading against NFRC energy performance criteria and labeling. The grading and tolerances in the NFRC 713 are for EPA requirements only.
• The multi-tiered corrective actions and fines are no longer applicable to the program.
• Language was introduced for scenarios when results from the verification testing are questionable and may not be under the purview of the participant’s performance, but the Inspection Agency, laboratory, or other entity.
• The IVP fee is separate from the NFRC participation fee per NFRC 704-2013.
• The IVP is for ENERGY STAR Partners only and use to verify ENERGY STAR qualified products.
• The only verification test is a thermal test performed in accordance with NFRC 102 and is the only value verification used for EPA evaluation.
• The destructive test has been removed as a verification test; however, it is still performed by the lab for comparison and evaluation purposes.
• ENERGY STAR Partners are required to inform NFRC which ENERGY STAR qualified product lines are sold as ENERGY STAR products. NFRC is developing an online tool for participants to use which will be available shortly.
• There is no grading against NFRC energy performance criteria and labeling. The grading and tolerances in the NFRC 713 are for EPA requirements only.
• The multi-tiered corrective actions and fines are no longer applicable to the program.
• Language was introduced for scenarios when results from the verification testing are questionable and may not be under the purview of the participant’s performance, but the Inspection Agency, laboratory, or other entity.
NFRC is requesting participants to forward any comments on the program document by November 26th to NFRC staff at ivp@nfrc.org.
NFRC continues to review the processes within the pilot program, and once these processes and the comments from NFRC participants are analyzed, the intent is for NFRC staff to present a final version (and implementation plan) to the NFRC Board of Directors for approval. It is our goal to begin implementing this phase of the IVP by January 1, 2013.
