At the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) Spring Committee Meeting in St. Louis on March 21, NFRC membership approved ballot changes to ANSI/NFRC 100-2017[E0A1]: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product U-factors and ANSI/NFRC 200-2017[E0A0]: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product Solar Heat Gain Coefficient and Visible Transmittance at Normal Incidence.

The NFRC Board of Directors then approved a proposal to submit these changes to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) public review process so that the changes may be implemented. The public review and comment period is scheduled to run from May 25 – June 24, 2018.

Specific language changes may be reviewed here:

·     NFRC 100-2017[E0A2] Changes

·     NFRC 200-2017{E0A1] Changes

The approved balloted language removes reference to “hybrid tubular daylighting devices” and “HTDD” from NFRC documents. The justification for this is when the tubular daylighting devices (TDD) product category was first identified, two different product configurations were envisioned and the category was divided into two –TDD and HTDD. As test methodologies and labeling requirements have been refined, these artificial divisions are no longer necessary or beneficial, and have been determined to cause confusion within the end-user marketplace. In addition, it has added unnecessary complexity within the certified product directory. As a result, it has been determined that the product category should be realigned to a single product type, that being the TDD.

The announcement that these documents are open to public comment will appear in Standards Action on May 25, 2018, marking the beginning of the open public comment period. With the documents being available electronically (via the links above), the comment period will be 30 days, closing on June 24, 2018.

Similar changes will be made to additional NFRC documents and all will be published at the same time. The other affected documents include:

·     NFRC 201: Procedure for Interim Standard Test Method for Measuring Solar Heat Gain Coefficient of Fenestration Systems Using Calorimetry Hot Box Methods,

·     NFRC 203: Procedure for Determining Visible Transmittance of Tubular Daylighting Devices, and

·     NFRC 700: Product Certification Program.

The documents up for review (with changes from previous version shown in underline/strikethrough format), additional details, and applications for joining the Committee are available on the ANS Standards Committee group page, which is open to the public. Questions may also be directed to Robin Merrifield at 240-821-9513.