DOE Announces Revised List of Elements for Inclusion in New Energy Star Criteria

The Department of Energy announced a list of possible elements for inclusion for the revised Energy Star® criteria and made available a preliminary list of window criteria on Friday, January 18.

While the DOE had previously announced a number of possible elements that might be included in the new criteria (CLICK HERE to view this announcement), with Friday’s announcement it says it has refined a number of these, as follows:

1. A revised climate zone map;
2. Introduction of a phased approach with near-term, mid-term and long-term criteria announced simultaneously;
3. Near-term, estimated to be effective in 2009, criteria levels achievable with products in production or with feasible manufacturing modifications;
4. A narrower range of U-factors in ES Zones 4 and 5 for 2009;
5. Specific SHGC ranges to capture winter solar gain;
6. A narrower SHGC range in ES Zone 1 for 2009;
7. Preparation for IGU certification requirement;
8. A later release date for the Criteria Proposal and Analysis (the release date is scheduled for early March, to take into consideration the outcome of the late-February IECC Code hearings); and
9. More time to transition from the current to the new criteria (6 to 12 months).

In addition, DOE has added the following two new elements to the criteria:

1. Separate criteria for doors that differentiate between opaque and glazed doors; and
2. An air leakage requirement.

The following table shows the current range of possible options that reflects these refinements. The final proposed criteria will have single-value maxima or minima in each cell that fall within the ranges in the table, DOE says. The agency also notes that the table does not yet reflect the results of the energy savings analyses, which could change some of the listed ranges.

* Preliminary criteria parameters may be revised in response to outputs from the technical and energy savings analysis. Final parameters will be set as single numbers, not ranges. DOE may allow trade-offs if the energy consumption analysis and code levels permit.

** For cells containing the letters TBD (To Be Determined), DOE does not currently have sufficient data to propose a range of values and will do so after the energy savings analysis is complete.

CLICK HERE for the full text of the announcement from the DOE.

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