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Greenbelt, Md. — Oct. 27, 2014 – The National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) is proud to announce that three NFRC documents have officially earned the American National Standard (ANS) designation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
The three NFRC documents referenced in International Code Council (ICC) Building Codes were the ones subjected to the process. The documents, with their new designations, are:
• ANSI/NFRC 100-2014: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product U-factors.
• ANSI/NFRC 200-2014: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product Solar Heat Gain Coefficient and Visible Transmittance at Normal Incidence.
• ANSI/NFRC 400-2014: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product Air Leakage
NFRC pursued the ANSI designation to add yet another layer to the standard consensus process already followed by NFRC. As ANSI describes it, “The open and fair ANS process ensures that all interested and affected parties have an opportunity to participate in a standard’s development. It also serves and protects the public interest since standards developers accredited by ANSI must meet the institute’s requirements for openness, balance, consensus, and other due-process safeguards.”
Now that the process is completed, NFRC will be limited in the changes that can be made to the documents as any changes made will require resubmission for public review and comment.
To limit the commitment required of NFRC volunteers and staff for continuous review, the NFRC ANS Standards Committee and the NFRC Board of Directors have agreed that changes to any documents that obtain ANS designation will be limited to a three-year cycle.
NFRC members serving on task groups and subcommittees may continue to review and ballot the documents as necessary. Proposed changes will be reserved until either the 18-month “critical” mark, or they will be incorporated into the documents at the three-year cycle. Changes may be implemented as addenda to the documents, but will not be incorporated until public review has been completed.
The NFRC Board of Directors will determine if changes made at the 18-month mark warrant immediate implementation.
NFRC is a non-profit organization that administers a voluntary, uniform rating, labeling, and certification system for the energy performance of windows, doors, curtain walls, skylights, and other fenestration products. Its members include manufacturers, suppliers, utilities, consumer groups, representatives from the building and code industries, scientific and educational organizations, and government agencies.
