The National Fenestration Rating Council's (NFRC) announced its board of directors has approved a plan to submit the three NFRC documents referenced in International Code Council (ICC) Building Codes for the American National Standards Institute's (ANSI) process in 2014.
The three documents to be submitted for public review, comment and the full ANSI consensus process include NFRC 100: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product U-factors, NFRC 200: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product Solar Heat Gain Coefficient and Visible Transmittance at Normal Incidence and NFRC 400: Procedure for Determining Fenestration Product Air Leakage.
"NFRC decided to pursue ANSI accreditation of its NFRC 100, NFRC 200 and NFRC 400 standards due to a request from ICC that the NFRC document referenced in the codes be American National Standards (ANS) documents," says Robin R. Merrifield, manager of communications and NFRC contact for the ANSI process.
"Preparing for this effort has been a lengthy process," says NFRC in a statement. "There were significant modifications to the three documents that needed to be incorporated prior to ANSI submission. These changes have now been made, as evidenced by the number of ballots presented to membership at the last several NFRC meetings. The NFRC board of directors is now confident that the NFRC 100, 200, and 400 documents are stable enough to enter the ANSI review process."
Beginning in early 2014, the NFRC 100, 200 and 400 documents will be submitted for public review and comment, with a goal of completing the full ANSI process by December 2014, according to NFRC. The council will be limited in the changes that can be made to the documents under review and 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 ANSI 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," according to the council.
"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. The NFRC board of directors will determine if changes made at the 18-month mark warrant immediate implementation," NFRC adds.
