Wausau is exhibiting at Greenbuild in booth #5048

Wausau becomes one of the first manufacturers to achieve NFRC “ACE” certification

Wausau Window and Wall Systems’ design engineers, John Kolbeck and Tom Mifflin, are among the first manufacturers to earn Approved Calculation Entity (ACE) certification through the National Fenestration Ratings Council (NFRC).

“As a front-runner in ACE certification, Wausau can provide a significant comfort factor to our customers, who are struggling to understand new energy code requirements,” says Kolbeck. “While NFRC labels are currently mandated only in California and Washington, we foresee nationwide adoption in the future.”

ACE-certified users analyze performance data for commercial fenestration energy ratings. Accessing NFRC’s Component Modeling Approach (CMA) software tool (CMAST), they review libraries of approved frames, glass and spacer components. These libraries help users configure fenestration products for a project, and allow them to obtain a U-factor, solar heat gain coefficient and visible transmittance rating for those products. Performance values are then compared to the energy requirements of local codes, such as California’s Title 24, to determine compliance.

“Many Wausau products are already listed in NFRC’s Certified Products Directory, applicable to factory-glazed windows and sliding glass doors. CMA ACE certification keeps us at the forefront of emerging industry trends in energy-efficiency of curtainwall systems,” notes Mifflin.

Mifflin, Kolbeck and their colleagues at Wausau also are involved with an industry pilot project for the NFRC commercial labeling and compliance process at the University of California-Berkeley’s Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences. When completed in 2011, the five-story, 200,000-square-foot facility will house 30 research laboratories, several lecture halls, the Henry H. Wheeler, Jr. Brain Imaging Center, and highly specialized instrumentation and containment areas for handling viruses and stem cell cultures. The campus’ Health Sciences Initiative was launched in 1999 to apply state-of-the-art tools in the physical sciences and engineering to the most pressing problems of biomedicine.

Download a PDF of the full news release from Wausau’s online media room.

Filed under: CLIENT NEWS, Wausau Window and Wall Systems