Here is another incentive that may help us with the replacement window decision. This time it’s not a tax credit but a program by the Department of Energy (DOE) called the “Highly-Insulating (R-5) Windows and Low-e Storm Windows Volume Purchase Program”. I stumbled across it in a GreenBuildingAdvisor blog post.
“The aim of this volume purchase initiative is to work with industry and potential buyers to make highly insulated windows more affordable.”
… states the DOE web site. Hey, great! This is right up my alley. Anything that could make this big investment less hurtful on our pocketbook is welcome!
So, how does this program work? There are 30-plus vendors that qualified for the DOE volume purchasing program – vendors that sell “high performance windows” with U-value of 0.22 or less.
The windows volume purchase web page allows the user to browse through different window types for new construction, retrofit windows, patio doors and low-E storm windows. I can select my window size range (listed in unit inches [UI]) and get access to a list of participating vendors.
This program can be a real big time saver. Rather than going from vendor to vendor to find out if they have high performance windows, I have a preselected list right at my fingertips. The program is also an excellent resource to quickly find local vendors of high performance windows.
I began to call around to see how much savings I could expect from the program. This is where it got interesting. It was officially launched on May 27, 2010 and some participants are organized, others are not.
With some vendors, I communicated with a sales person who was designated to just deal with the DOE program sales, while others had no clue what I was talking about. I literally had to point them to the web site so they could see their name in the participating vendor list. Some had to get in touch with their corporate headquarters to investigate what this was all about.
This made it rather difficult to get my hands on the pricing information. I had to be very explicit and persistent that I was only interested in the DOE volume purchase initiative pricing structure, the same structure that had been submitted to and approved by the DOE.
Despite all the confusion I caused with my inquiries, I eventually got some pricing that appeared to be in line with the DOE program.
Because we are about to replace the basement windows, I used their size range (up to 70 UI) for my inquiry and got a price spread of $138.00 to $328.00.
I am not sure, but my gut tells me that some of the prices are not that different from the regular sales prices, which puts into question the objective of “making highly insulated windows more affordable”.
But so what? I still can get a 70 UI high performance window for under $200, right?
Well – you have to look out for the air leakage (AL) rate. Like I contemplated earlier, the insulation value of a window can be negated by a high AL rate. If we would like to keep the AL below 0.05 cfm/sf, we are looking at more than $200.00 per window.
As helpful as the DOE program is, it is important to remember that there are windows that are even more efficient than those included in the program. That is why I kept the Uniframe double hung by Great Lakes Windows in my list.
The question now is if the price delta to the next runner up (the Serious Windows product) can be justified by additional energy savings.
