Masterframe Trade

NEW A+ AND A* WINDOW ENERGY RATINGS

Now Certass and BFRC have different “A” ratings, which will cause serious confusion with retail customers. We explain whats going on here.

As Masterframe were the first company to gain a window energy rating of any kind, and certainly the first window to get a C rated back in 2005, (that’s why we twice won the energy efficiency initiative of the year, at the G05 and G07 awards) we take a real interest in energy efficiency, especially when the rules change!

Time moves on and although U values of 2.0 were then permissible, today they are down to 1.6 or a “C rating” on the window energy ratings scale (WER), yet some companies have created energy positive windows, “A rated” products.

Now there are two new additional bands.

Because marketing and sales people like to claim their product is the best performing on the market, they have forced BFRC and Certass to bring out additional levels of “A ratings” however, confusingly, they are different!

BFRC the founders of the energy ratings systems have decided that any window with A + 10 will be A+, however, Certass call that level A* allowing A+ to be used when a window is A +5

How two agencies cannot work together is beyond me, and one of these bodies will have to change (and quickly) because consumers will be totally confused. For now we are happy that our standard windows are all A rated as standard, and customers get steel reinforment not plastic reinforcing plastic and as a result of the steel reinforcing, secured by design is easy to achieve with A rating too!