New passive house window award launched

Here's more details from the institute:

For a passive house building, energy efficient components are crucial. In order to recognise particularly high-quality and cost-effective products, the Passive House Institute is announcing the new Component Award. The very first award will be given for windows and is to be presented at the International Passive House Conference, taking place from 25 - 26 April 2014 in Aachen, Germany.

A reference building will form the basis of evaluation for the Component Award. Using a standardised procedure, participants will offer windows at consumer prices, installation included, for this building. "In recent years, many manufacturers have made enormous progress in optimising their windows in terms of energy efficiency," mentions Dr Benjamin Krick, head of component certification at the Passive House Institute. The award is intended as an incentive to further improvement.

With the market for energy efficient components steadily growing, costs have also recently been affected."In many countries, the prices of Passive House windows with triple-glazing now approximate those of conventional products; Passive House has thus become the most economical building standard," comments Dr Wolfgang Feist, director of the Passive House Institute. The lower the additional investment costs for energy efficiency in new builds or retrofits, the quicker the pay back through savings. "This progress must be supported. Winning components will thus demonstrate the greatest overall savings in investment and running costs as compared to standard windows," explains Feist.

The completion, based on the cool, temperate climate zone, will consist of four award categories for windows: wood, wood/aluminium, aluminium and PVC. All Passive House Institute certified passive house components available for order no later than the end of April 2014 may be entered, whereby the submission deadline is 01 March 2014. The winning components will receive a special certificate valid through 2015. Further details can be found at www.passivehouse.com