b'NATIONAL FENESTRATION RATING COUNCILTHE BIRTH OF THE NFRC And the little Canadian program that made it happen (in Vancouver!)By Alex McGowan, MBA, P.Eng., Senior Manager, Building Sciences, WSPFIGURE 1: COMPARISON OF TEST AND SIMULATION RESULTS FOR VARIOUS WINDOWS, C.1987T his year, the U.S. National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) celebrates its 30th birthday! There will be a lot of flag-waving and fireworks, but there doesnt appear to be any acknowledgement of the Canadian connectionwhich is too bad, because its an interesting story. The editors of this fine publication have graciously provided me an opportunity to share that story, and to remind everyone (or tell anyone who didnt know) that the idea of the NFRC was actually created in Vancouver. Whats more, the very first commercial window simulation was done for a window manufacturer in greater Vancouver. Its a genuine Canadian success story that appears to have been forgotten, and now the story can be toldFor this history lesson, well have to go backco-op student named Jeff Baker (now a Technical19901, and it proved that computer models in time, before the NFRC was born. It was theConsultant for Fenestration Canada), Steve andcould be a useful adjunct to testing.1980s: disco was on the way out, shoulder padshis team modelled several windows that wereAt that time, a physical test required and big hair were in, and a plucky engineeringalso tested at the National Research Council Cana- constructing a test specimen, shipping it to a graduate from the University of Waterloo started adas guarded hot-box facility. The results of that company to use computer modelling to simulateresearch are shown in Figure 1, which compares heat transfer and energy use in buildings. Histhe simulation results to tests for a variety of1 CANMET Division of Energy Mines and Resources Canada (now Natural Resources name was Stephen Carpenter, and he developedframe types, glass configurations, operator types,Canada), 1990: Development of a procedure a tool called FRAME, which was a 2D finite- sizes and spacer bars). This work was conductedfor calculating total-window U-value and SHGC, volume heat transfer model. Working with ain the mid-1980s, with a final report written inprepared by Enermodal Engineering Limited.8 BCBEC ELEMENTSA BCBEC PUBLICATION'