The third and final day of the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA) Hybrid Fall Conference ended on Thursday, October 21. Along with the various committee and working group meetings, updates were made throughout the day regarding the industry’s current position on supply chain challenges. , COVID-19 and the future.

Kathy Krafka Harkema, director of technical operations for FGIA in the United States, reported on the current state of the United States Harkema reviewed a number of executive orders issued by President Biden, addressed the impacts of COVID-19 on travel and business; and discussed government regulations regarding trade agreements by the United States, Canada and Mexico. She has also talked a lot about the public comments of Energy Star 7.0.

“Specifically in the US Energy Star program, we mentioned that our Regulatory Steering Committee Rapid Response team was involved in providing feedback on behalf of our organization to Energy Star executives on the 7.0 Draft 1 specification. for windows, doors and skylights. Harkema said.

Harkema made sure to answer what she thought was the biggest question on many minds, considering it has been months since the first release of Energy Star 7.0 was released.

“The big question everyone would like to know: when will this second draft of Energy Star 7.0 be released? The answer is: there is no specific date. We know this will happen by January 23, 2023, at the earliest, when the EPA and Energy Star have given us assurances that this will be the first time Spec 7.0 comes into play. ”

On July 7, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a revised Energy Star specification for residential windows, doors, and skylights (WDS).

“We believe it is important to remove sliding glass doors from the proposed window criteria and instead leave sliding glass doors with the door criteria; to simplify these Energy Star skylight criteria by setting the U factor to 0.53 and keeping this solar heat gain coefficient at no less than 0.28. In addition, we believe from a fundamental point of view that if we require NAF (North American Fenestration Standard) certification for the most efficient Energy Star program products, we should also require NAF certification for Energy Star program products. . And finally, once again, we have said that it is important not to implement this until January 1, 2024, because we all know that we are experiencing tensions on the supply chain and equipment under the current conditions. in the market and these are not expected to abate anytime soon. . And we also want to make sure that the EPA makes it clear to others that Energy Star in the United States is a voluntary above code program and that it is not intended to serve as a model for national energy codes or local.