According to Ashrae 90.1 5.4.3.2 air leakage for fenestration and doors shall be determined in accordance with NFRC 400 and it shall be done by an accredited laboratory. Also at the last paragraph it reads under the exceptions: a Field-fabricated fenestration and doors.
In the country of the project there are no accredited laboratories to run such a test. The doors and fenestration will be field installed.
It is not clear to me if you need or not the certification since the exception clearly states that field fabricated items do not apply. It makes no sense to me that clearly the intent is having a tight construction and in the exceptions they are stating the opposite. Can you please clarify and also how can I prove compliance, for example, even though I bring the windows from the states with the certified window-frame assembly, it will still have to be installed here.
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Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
December 1, 2010 - 3:48 pm
Field-fabricated means that the door or window is actually made or fabricated on-site, not just installed. So field installed and field fabricated are not the same. Assuming you are installing the fenestration and doors and not making them - you can request the testing results from the manufacturer which should demonstrate compliance for those products. This requirement is for the products, not the installation.
javier bolanos zeledon
243 thumbs up
December 1, 2010 - 6:54 pm
What if the main doors are made locally and have no certification, can they be installed??
javier bolanos zeledon
243 thumbs up
December 2, 2010 - 7:09 am
Marcus, it still doesn't make sense to me that field-fabricated fenestration and doors can be excluded from the requirement. What is the intent of doing that?? You cannot assure quality by allowing such a thing.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
December 2, 2010 - 9:58 am
There was a LEED v2.2 CIR Ruling dated 5-21-09 that is somewhat applicable and you may be able to get some ideas from it.
Are there any local standards for air leakage related to window and door products made locally?
While this is a mandatory provision in 90.1 the reality is that you are not required to submit any of these certifications for LEED and the reviewer will not ask for them unless you point out the issue.
Regarding the field fabrication exclusion you would have to ask the folks who write 90.1. I can only speculate that the exclusion would allow custom, one-of-a-kind windows and doors to be installed which would be very expensie to get tested and certified.
javier bolanos zeledon
243 thumbs up
December 2, 2010 - 12:04 pm
Thanks a lot Marcus