The Department of Energy's (DOE) much-anticipated ENERGY STAR stakeholder meeting will take place this Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. in Washington, D.C. In preparation, the DOE has released a draft of the new proposed ENERGY STAR criteria for doors, windows and skylights.
The new criteria differs from the current criteria in several ways, according to an announcement from ENERGY STAR product manager Rich Karney, as follows:
- Revised climate zone boundaries more closely match national and state energy code climate zones;
- The new criteria includes a separate zone and stringent prescriptive criteria for windows in the Pacific Northwest in Phase 1;
- In the heating dominated north, outside of the Pacific Northwest, windows must meet minimum annual energy performance;
- Traditional prescriptive maxima have been developed in the central and southern regions without equivalent performance criteria (trade-offs);
- Products must meet a new insulating glass unit (IGU) certification requirement relying on the anticipated National Fenestration Rating Council's IGU certification requirement;
- The draft includes separate criteria for swinging entry doors that vary according to glazing area rather than climate zone; and
- The revised skylight criteria is more stringent, though less aggressive, than the door and window criteria.
