The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) contracted with Steve Selkowitz, formerly of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), to conduct a cost study of high-performance windows. The study sought to quantify the incremental manufacturing cost of upgrading windows from the current dominant market leader, an ENERGY STAR® V6 compliant window with a U-factor of 0.27, to the new ENERGY STAR V7 window with a U-factor of 0.22 in the Northern Zone. Understanding these manufacturing cost options will allow NEEA to assess the value and design of potential market intervention programs to accelerate the shift to the higher efficiency V7 option.
The report explores several technical pathways to make the required thermal improvements and concludes that an upgrade to a thermally enhanced double-glazed window or a shift to a triple glazed window can be achieved at an incremental manufacturing cost of ~ $1.80 - $2.10/sf with volume production.
