Energy Efficiency Is #1 Issue For Consumers

Every year the Joint Center for Housing Survey comes out and every year it looks like last year's report. Surprise, not this year.

84% of the people surveyed chose energy efficiency as their first concern when considering new windows and siding. Not very long ago energy efficiency wasn't that big of a concern to most people, leaving me to ask "What changed"?

I have to believe that the awareness of the general public about the energy efficiency of windows is really what has changed. Concern for the environment and energy use can also be seen in the "green" movement".

The real test will happen when there is a choice to make. If the total replacement window package is $4,000 more for windows that are twice as energy efficient which window will be chosen? The ROI on double the energy efficiency more than pays the difference in cost in less than six years but how many people really think like that?

It will be interesting to see if energy efficiency and long-term thinking prevail over immediate cash outlay. Stay tuned!

What Is A "Green" Window

As we've become more and more aware of "building green" I wondered what that really meant for the window and glass industries. I needed to know what is universally set as the criteria for "green". We're actually asking how different windows score on tough environmental measures through all life-cycle stages, including raw material acquisition, manufacture, transportation, installation, use, and waste management using those criteria.

To me, all wood windows are immediately disqualified from any conversation about "Green". They use up precious natural resources, create waste, don't last long enough, and aren't energy efficient enough.

Is a man made material like vinyl considered "green"? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. I'll use Preservation Windows as an example. They don't use up natural resources, create zero waste, last lifetimes, and are way more energy efficient than most windows.

Before I really looked into it I thought Renewal by Andersen was the greenest window because of their use of sawdust and recycled materials. They were the first to receive the "Green Seal" award. What is their lifecycle? Who knows, but they only warranty their frames for ten years where many other vinyl window manufacturer's provide lifetime warranties. I wonder if that is a reflection of their confidence in mixing sawdust, recycled pop bottles, and vinyl together as a frame material?

Then I looked at their NFRC ratings on their website. Preservation Windows standard units are significantly more energy efficient than Renewal and it isn't even close.

My new impression of what "green" means certainly changes everything.

Glass Designed For Zone 5

Energy Star's proposed standards for upcoming years have added two more zones to the United States. The northern most zone is zone 5 which includes Minneapolis, St. Paul, Fargo, Green Bay, and many others. It is also the zone where u-factor is the most important rating you will see on the NFRC label.

What is the NFRC label? It is the label on every manufacturer's window that reports the independent test rating of five major components. Heat loss is the term most often tied to u-factor and that is really a function of the glass used in manufacturing the replacement window. Now you see why I say that u-factor is most important in zone 5.

When Energy Star published their proposed standards for upcoming years they made it clear that they want the Energy Star logo to mean something on windows. They are setting much higher and harder to achieve energy efficiency standards.

EnergyMaxx10 glass is the heart of what makes the Preservation Window the most energy efficient window on the market. EnergyMaxx10 has a number of key components that make it so energy efficient. It has the SST spacer system, krypton gas, two gas-filled chambers, and one inch of total glass space.

The SST spacer system is the heart of 'warm edge technology'. The specifications for the SST system clearly show why but here is the short list.

• Exclusive, patented tru warm edge.
• Patented double seal system.
• 54% more thermally efficient than windows made with conventional spacers.
• 950 times less conductive than aluminum spacers.
• 85 times less conductive than stainless steel spacers.
• Krypton gas has more than two and half times as much insulating value as argon.
• The chambers are larger than other glass types.

There are a few of the reasons for those of you in Zone 5 to go with Preservation Windows with EnergyMaxx10 glass.

Replacement Windows Take Planning

With so many replacement windows on the market it can be confusing and frustrating to know which way to go. There are some general considerations that need to be considered and it may help you to develop a checklist of basic requirements. If you start calling contractors and listen to their recommendations you'll probably become more confused than you were going into the process.

One of the first things I recommend doing is to inspect your windows from the outside. Take note of the wood and siding around the window unit because it is as important as your window choice in the long run. If you find rotting and/or holes and cracks around the window you probably should be doing a full frame window replacement.

A full frame window replacement is one that includes complete removal and replacement of the whole window including jambs, casing, head, sill, and sash. In most homes there has been water leakage over the years that has caused rotting and, possibly, mold. When the contractor removes the old window unit they have clear access to inspect and replace any problems they find. They can also re-insulate immediately around the replacement window unit for better overall performance.

Decide what material you want. There are three basic materials used in the replacement window industry. Those three materials are wood, vinyl, and aluminum.

There is no wood window on the market with a lifetime warranty. The basic problem is that wood rots. They just can't count on it to last. It also doesn't have the insulating value of vinyl and aluminum because both of those can be filled with some type of insulation like foam. Condensation is inevitable, especially when your house is well insulated. The condensation drips down the inside of the glass and causes the water to collect on the wood sash. Wood gives you maintenance headaches and premature death of your windows.

In cooler climates aluminum windows are not a good choice either. Aluminum conducts heat and cold so they don't offer the insulation value of the same window built with vinyl.

I always recommend vinyl replacement windows. Within the classification of "vinyl replacement windows" there are high quality vinyl and low quality vinyl components used in a variety of windows. Make sure that your are only considering virgin vinyl. Recycled vinyl is not good in replacement windows and is really not a green product. Using reground vinyl creates instability within the vinyl because the polymers are trying to get back to their original shape. In the sun the various reground vinyls will crack or break during expansion and contraction.

And now we've reached the biggest item for you to consider. Glass is the single most important factor in choosing your replacement windows. 85% of the window unit is glass and glass is the easiest thing to get objective rankings for. The NFRC provides the data you need in their rating system. As you will see, there are thousands of window manufacturers that have their products rated by the NFRC (National Fenestration Rating Council). Understanding the data makes it simple to know which windows are the contenders and which ones are the pretenders but understanding the NFRC label is the easiest way for you to rank the various windows.

Surprisingly, the big three, Andersen, Marvin, and Pella don't seem to come close to some of the smaller companies in their standard offering. There are many really good ones but from what I've seen the two best overall replacement vinyl windows are Preservation Windows and Gorrell Windows. Using the criteria I talked about will help you decide which window works for you. What I think doesn't really matter, what do you think?

Sustainable Building- PPG's New Century of Architectural Significance

Today’s architects occupy the leading edge of a growing global environmental consciousness. While the industry’s earlier masters were celebrated mainly for the extraordinary design and functionality of their work, the contemporary practitioner is now focused with equal intensity on creating structures that harmonize with the delicate ecosystems they occupy.

Concepts such as sustainability, renewability, reclamation, upcycling and lifecycle analysis, only marginally understood a decade ago, have become common to the architect’s vernacular.

Today, these terms are being codified into a new canon of architectural standards. Perhaps the most widely recognized standards are those administered by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), whose LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ has gained primacy among governmental agencies, municipalities and major corporations eager to benefit from sustainable building.

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) also has established ASTM E 2129. This is another recognized standard designed to assess the “sustainability of elements or products” used in commercial and residential construction, as well as a building’s overall design efficiency, its impact on the habits of its occupants, and its influence on the surrounding climate.

The ASTM E 2129 standard addresses the potential environmental sustainability of a building project according to five major criteria, encompassing Materials, Manufacturing, Operational Performance of Installed Product, Indoor Environmental Quality and Corporate Environmental Policy. Rather than establishing specific standards within each of these categories, ASTM E 2129 poses a series of questions. Answers to those questions demonstrate to what degree a structure adheres to the principle of sustainable building.

While LEED does not certify individual building products, it does recognize that the selection of such products can play a vital role in making a building LEED compliant. PPG manufactures a variety of glass, paint and coating products that can help architects earn LEED certification for their projects. These products also positively address sustainability issues outlined in the ASTM E 2129 standard.

A Global Commitment
While the growth of green building is a relatively new phenomenon, PPG’s commitment to environmental responsibility is long-standing. For decades, PPG has been committed to making products and pursuing business practices that help sustain a healthy global environment.

In fact, most PPG building products transcend the LEED standard by addressing long-term economic, quality and manufacturing issues that impact the environment, yet fall outside LEED performance parameters. Many of these issues, such as corporate environmental policy, are addressed in the ASTM E 2129 standard.

On the corporate level, this commitment is articulated through PPG’s EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) policy, which fosters partnerships with governmental agencies and environmentally focused groups around the world. These partnerships support programs and meet strict standards for resource conservation, habitat preservation, and cleaner air and water.

A strong environmental awareness also pervades PPG’s research and product development efforts, which span numerous industries beyond the architectural field.

The result is a vast reservoir of technical knowledge and engineering expertise that enables PPG to translate the environmental advances it makes in one industry into exciting new products that serve another.

The Benefits are Clear
EcoLogical^™ Glass for Architecture
Glass is one of the architects’ most versatile tools. Fused from raw materials that are abundant and inexpensive, glass is a low-maintenance material that has the capacity to retain or deflect the sun’s energy, while protecting building occupants from wind, rain, snow and other disruptive environmental forces.

Architects also treasure glass’s transparency, which can frame a dramatic view or present limitless color, shape and reflectivity options. Along with its decorative potential, architectural glass also performs two important functions that are critical to sustainable building, LEED and the ASTM E 2129 evaluation process.

Spectral Selectivity
For sustainable building projects, the ideal architectural glass is one that permits the greatest amount of natural light to enter a building while limiting, to the furthest extent possible, the thermal effects of infrared energy and solar heat gain.

A glass’s ability to balance this “spectral ideal” is quantified by its Light to Solar Gain ratio (LSG). Any glass that achieves an LSG of more than 1.25 is considered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to be . This designation became especially significant when the DOE, following a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL), recommended that all commercial buildings in the U.S. be glazed with spectrally selective glass.

Not surprisingly, PPG was a trailblazer in the development of these critical products more than 50 years ago. The company supplied the first spectrally selective glass to New York’s landmark Lever House Building in 1952, the first major skyscraper to use tinted glass as a design and environmental control element. PPG also made history 30 years later when it debuted the first Low-E coated product, Sungate^® glass.

Today, the technologies that originated with these two products are industry standards. The glass featured on the Lever House Building, now known as Solexia™, is part of PPG’s inspiring Oceans of Color™ collection. With LSGs ranging from 1.28 to 1.34, Oceans of Color represents the world’s most unique and best performing line of spectrally selective tinted glasses.

Meanwhile, PPG’s original Sungate technology has evolved into two of the industry’s most effective and widely specified products, Solarban^® 60 and Solarban^® 80 Solar Control Low-E Glasses.

Solarban 60 Low-E Glass and PPG’s other low-emissivity architectural glass products are especially important to architects seeking to manage infrared heat gain while capitalizing on the benefits of natural daylight. These versatile, high-performance products can be combined with clear glass—or a complete range of earth- and ocean-inspired tints—to offer clients an unsurpassed selection of aesthetic and solar control capabilities.

Through their exceptional amalgamation of light transmittance and solar control engineering, PPG architectural glasses help architects satisfy LEED prerequisites in nearly every LEED environmental category, but especially those related to energy performance, daylighting and views, and thermal comfort.

The Glass is Always Greener
Lower heating and lighting costs aren’t the only way PPG glass enhances the environment. We’re making positive contributions through our manufacturing practices as well.

PPG was a leading pioneer in oxygen-fuel furnace technology and one of the first companies to install it on a float glass production line in North America. Today, this technology is in operation at two major PPG glass production facilities.

Thanks to this extraordinary advancement, PPG has cut the amount of fuel needed to make finished glass by more than 15 percent. Carbon dioxide emissions at these two plants also have been reduced by 10 percent and emissions of nitrogen oxide have been lowered by 50 percent. Finally, more than 70 tons of annual hazardous waste has been eliminated from the production cycle in these two facilities alone.

Recycling
Buildings also can earn LEED credits based on the amount of their recycled content. All PPG glass products contain a minimum 20 percent of post-industrial recycled glass. What’s more, every PPG glassmaking plant is equipped with extensive systems to recover and store discarded glass. Otherwise known as “cullet,” these materials are combined with other batch materials during the melting process. A full 100 percent of the unused glass PPG produces internally is recycled into production.

Finally, many of PPG’s glass products are shipped in reusable steel cases. As a result, the amount of disposable packaging that accompanies architectural glass products has been reduced from 75 percent to 10 percent.

Local Sourcing
PPG Certified Fabricator^® Program
At least 20 percent of a project’s building materials must be manufactured within a 500-mile radius of the construction site, according to LEED mandates. ASTM E 2129 also advocates efforts to minimize the use of nonrenewable energy in the delivery of building products to the building site.

PPG’s Certified Fabricator^® Program (CFP) is a network of highly trained and qualified suppliers with fabricating plants throughout the United States. They specialize in the fabrication of high-performance solar control and spectrally selective glasses, such as Solarban and Oceans of Color.

By purchasing glass from a local CFP, architects not only receive the highest possible level of quality and performance from their glass supplier, but they also can claim additional credit toward LEED certification, depending on the percentage of glass material used in their project.

Energy Tax Credit Back For 2009

The National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) has confirmed that Congress approved and President Bush has signed legislation renewing home improvement tax credits for consumers.

The credits are obtainable only for home improvements completed January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009. The original credits expired December 31st, 2007, and no credits are available for home improvements made during 2008.

The home improvement credit program will work the same way it did in 2007. Consumers can receive $200 credit for all qualifying products (including windows and doors) installed during any one taxable year. There is a $500 lifetime credit limit. All credits must be requested before the end of 2009.

An exterior window or door (other than a storm window or storm door) is considered an “Eligible Building Envelope Component” when it meets or exceeds the prescriptive criteria established by the IECC for the climate zone in which the window or door is installed.

A taxpayer may treat an exterior window that bears an ENERGY STAR^® label and is installed in the region identified on the label as an Eligible Building Envelope Component and may rely on such ENERGY STAR^® label, rather than on a manufacturer’s certification statement, in claiming the § 25C credit.

The credit amount established by § 25C of the Internal Revenue Code is:
• 10% of the amount paid or incurred by the taxpayer for qualified energy efficiency improvements installed during the taxable year.
• Up to $200.00 maximum credit for windows for all taxable years (maximum $500.00 credit for all improvements combined).
• Allowed only for amounts paid or incurred to purchase the window or door.
• Not allowed for amounts paid for onsite preparation, assembly, original installation labor, other components or sales tax.
• The purchase must be made during the taxable year for which the credit is claimed.
• Retroactive and with time limits, covering product in service after December 31, 2005 and before January 1, 2008.

The Energy Tax Credit information contained on the Preservation site is not complete or comprehensive. For the entire scope of information about the Credit for Non-Business Energy Property § 25C, please see:

Energy Tax Credit Information

Claiming Your Tax Credit

After establishing your eligibility to claim a Tax Credit for Non-Business Energy Property § 25C, please complete the following to ensure accuracy:

1. Request an invoice demonstrating the cost breakout of the window or door components from your contractor. This cost must exclude the cost of onsite preparation, assembly, original installation labor, other components or sales tax.
2. Download the applicable official Manufacturer's Certificate PDF following the links below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).
3. Retain the contractor invoice and our official Manufacturer's Certificate for your IRS records. You are not required to provide this documentation to the IRS, but you will be required to present it if audited.