BFRC: Lets Drop Rivalry for the Good of the Glass Industry says Pilks

Recently and regrettably there have been very public criticisms made of the concept of Window Energy Ratings. Until now, Pilkington has not commented in public. The criticisms were aimed primarily at the integrity of the British Fenestration Rating Council (with a 'humorous' swipe at Pilkington), and the BFRC has responded. The BFRC has re-confirmed that it is a government-supported body, independent of any manufacturer and refusing to be influenced by commercial interests. The BFRC has acknowledged a misprint in its calculation (dividing g by 0.9 instead of multiplying by 0.9) and that differences in rounding can result in slightly different values. However, even taking these variations into consideration, Pilkington can still confirm that hard coat low-e and soft-coat low-e are likely to place any given window in the same Window Energy Rating category.

St Gobain is trying to pursue its commercial interests, which is understandable, but Pilkington offers both hard-coat low-e (Pilkington K Glass™) and soft-coat low-e (Pilkington Optitherm™ SN) and we have carefully compared the two in terms of WERs. There is little difference – in some very specific applications, hard coat can appear slightly better and in others soft coat can, but in principle, the better solar gain in hard coat low-e means that both perform the same. What is much worse is that Saint Gobain seems unable to look at the bigger picture. For too long, specifiers and legislators have regarded glazing as the weak point in the building envelope. No matter how obsessed we become with lower and lower window U values, they will never get within reach of those of the opaque walls. We are already seeing, particularly in new-build, the response of many house-builders to successive Building Regulations changes based on tighter U values has been to reduce window size. Smaller window area does no one in the glass and window industries any good and is a very real threat.

At last, with Window Energy Ratings, we have the possibility of a government-backed system that can recognise the positive aspects of windows and promote the higher performing ones. It is very sad that all the recent gossip has been of how we should alter these standards or even de-rail them altogether. We have seen nothing about how the window industry can reach the higher performing A or B rated windows and, more importantly, how we can sell these for higher margin rather than simply higher cost.

Window Energy Ratings are a fantastic opportunity for our industry to assert and promote the benefits of windows, and to confound the conventional wisdom that, in the interests of energy efficiency, window areas should be reduced. The plans for Part L have been made clear until 2010 and refer to Window Energy Ratings. As a result, glass processors can continue to decide which low-e glass they want to buy based on a number of factors (not on misinformation from one manufacturer) and the industry should focus on the opportunity rather than try to perceive it as a threat.

Hopefully, we can now draw a line under this issue and, once again, begin to work together for the greater good of the glass and glazing industry.

Matt Buckley
Marketing Director
Pilkington Building Products - UK.