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NFRC members approve new ventilation rating

July 14, 2016 – The National Fenestration Rating Council’s (NFRC) Ventilation Rating Task Group, led by Ray Garries as chair, successfully developed a new ventilation rating for NFRC after several years of task group work.  Titled NFRC 401: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product Ventilation Rating, the final document (with edits) was approved by NFRC members at the Spring 2016 Committee Meeting in Alexandria, Virginia.

 
“This optional rating standardizes the methods to measure the ventilation area of operable fenestration products and delivers a rating based on the ratio of frame area to ventilation area,” said Garries. “The key point here is that NFRC will now be able to supply the key part of the formula for effective natural ventilation, as in the equation from Autodesk. NFRC’s ventilation rating will fill in the ‘A’ in the formula Q_wind = K * A * V.” (See THIS LINK for more information on the equation.)
 
Full implementation of the new rating requires additional work on the part of NFRC staff and the Board of Directors. Now that the procedure for the rating has been accepted by membership, the changes required to accommodate it in the NFRC Certified Products Directory (CPD) must be weighed, accounted for, approved, and then completed in the CPD software.  Release of the procedure and implementation of the ventilation rating is expected in early 2017.
 
“NFRC is grateful to Ray Garries, Joe Jonely (vice chair), and all of the members of the Ventilation Rating Task Group,” said Michelle Scism, NFRC staff liaison for the task group. “Their hard work and the many hours volunteered over the course of several years to get this new rating accomplished are examples of the dedication that NFRC relies on for the benefit of the full fenestration industry.”

For more information
http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/buildings/natural-ventilation