Rising from the ASHRAE

A wild week it’s been. Two major issues are floating out there, one that is misrepresenting people’s views and another that could have a terrible effect on our industry. Let’s start with the maneuver at play that could hurt all of us and that’s the move the reduce glass (window areas) by 10% in the next round of ASHRAE codes. Now some people don’t pay any mind on what goes on in these various code groups, and unfortunately because of that, folks that are very unfriendly to our industry are taking our lunches and running away with them. 10% may not seem like a lot to you, but in reality losing that available area is very bad. And I must admit I was one of the people who was missing this ongoing effort until a wise man pointed it out to me. So once again our industry is under attack, will we do anything about it? Or will we just complain about things like the surcharge and just take it because it has no monetary effect right at this second?
And I must note again for the millionth time… our industry is never ever against energy efficiency. What we rail against (for those of people at the DOE who just can’t get it through your thick skulls) is the crap that always gets attached to it. The unnecessary policing, the money grabs, the lack of intelligence or education on how things get done. That’s where we have the issues, but of course it’s always spun as “the glass industry doesn’t want energy efficiency.” Anyway this ASHRAE thing deserves your attention and will be getting mine as we dig into it more.

Elsewhere…

-- Last week a website featuring many glass industry related companies came to light… the site sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund was showing companies that support “green jobs” but when you dug into it and got more detail you found that the site was being used to show support for the Cap and Trade bill and the whole Carbon adventure. People were being mislead at every level because if your name was on the site you were “supporting” the current Cap & Trade effort. (One example- Congresspeople were being told these companies supported Cap & Trade because they were on the list) AAMA immediately addressed it to its membership and the folks at GANA I know were aware and addressing it via their energy division. Anyway, here’s the site. The key is the site tries to come off as innocent but in reality it’s far from it.

-- The NFRC had a webinar on Wednesday that was pretty interesting. Some basic notes because I know most of the audience has moved on from the NFRC adventure… but I still have to pound away…

-- The DOE will be throwing more money at NFRC… like they actually need it… so this program can go. Funny if the DOE would push the money towards the manufacturers and the people truly affected by the implementation of this boondoggle it would have more potential. But why should they do anything logical?

-- The poor folks in California… especially the glaziers are screwed. They will pay for the sins of terrible code enforcement and blatant cronyism. Gotta be tough enough to do business now in that state how it is and come January 1st its going to get a lot worse.

-- Custom curtainwalls will really suffer under this program and be prepared to spend money and time because both are keys to everything that will happen. Not to mention duplication of efforts to ensure the Keystone Certifications of the world can have an easy living.

-- NFRC has a marketing company out promoting this to code officials and energy providers hoping they’ll push this stuff. Chances are the code guys will love it, it gives them something new to do. Glad the NFRC can spend cash on the marketing company too… that’s why they need money from DOE I guess…

-- The marketing company said the key of this program is it will “show the value of high performance glass” Yep… that’s it… and really it was all a part of the message that you could never trust the performance values you got from the manufacturers. That’s been it from day 1. And that’s a travesty.

-- Last on this, NFRC listed the 675th and 676th reasons we are getting this nightmare. (Remember #1 was the Marv Stover famous “congressional mandate” that did not exist) Yes John Lewis said that this program is needed because it’s good for comparison of products and differentiation of products. Comical.
I could go on and on… but I won’t. I will say John Lewis does have a tremendous radio voice though, so if the NFRC stuff does not pan out, he could easily be a talk show host.

-- Last quick note on Cap and Trade… Window and Door magazine did a poll last week on people’s attitude towards it and 81% said it was bad for the country. Nice to see 81% of the industry has a clue. Just wonder what some of the other folks are thinking…

To the Links…

-- And while we are feeling sorry for California, here’s one… the people who invested in Solar may be about to lose their subsidies…

-- An inmate throws a Bar Mitzvah for his son… behind bars… oh his mother must be so proud.

-- Good story about a good man… after 9 heart surgeries a man spreads his love of music to kids. NINE heart surgeries… my goodness, the line after that could be anything and it would still be a good story.

Video of the WEEK…

The “Link Chick” turns into the “Video of the Week” chick with this submission… very cool bat swinger… I would hurt myself badly…