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Windows are notorious for being a weak link in a building’s envelope (its exterior) in terms of energy usage.  Even the most efficient windows are poor insulators when compared to the walls around them.  When a building has older windows the losses are even higher.  Unfortunately, the savings from replacing windows are often not high enough to offset the initial costs.

According to the Department of Energy, you may soon not have to replace the windows to see increased savings.  The DoE recently announced $31 million in funding for 14 projects as part of the Single-Pane Highly Insulating Efficient Lucid Design (SHIELD) program.  This program seeks to develop innovative window coatings and windowpanes that could significantly improve the energy efficiency of existing single-pane windows in commercial and residential buildings.

One example of a new product is a flexible, transparent window film based on liquid crystalline phases of nano-cellulose aerogel that have low-emissivity properties.  Another project is working on a transparent, nanostructured film that features unique nanoshell structures tightly packed to create a strong thermal barrier.  Both technologies, applied to an existing single pane window would help prevent heat loss.

These products are most likely a few years out from being available for your building.  If you would like to see what you can do now to improve your energy efficiency, please contact us and we will be happy to evaluate your existing (or proposed) structure and let you know what can be done to increase its efficiency and lower its costs.

If you are interested in reading more about these upcoming technologies, the entire article can be found  here.

Whether for a new building design, 179d certification or a rebate application, computer energy modeling is a big part of what we do here at Forward Engineers.  ASHRAE recently featured a fantastic article in their most recent issue of ASHRAE Journal (May 2016) entitled ‘Modeled Performance Isn’t Actual Performance.”  The best part of this article is that it describes what an energy model can do and what it cannot do.  An energy model is not designed to estimate real world energy usage but instead to calculate relative savings between design alternatives or to compare a proposed design against a standard benchmark.

A final point made in the article is one we agree with entirely.  Models are only as good as the person doing the modeling.  We have over 10 years of combined experience in modeling many different sizes and types of buildings.  We are also skilled at taking the output of the simulation and putting together a well polished report describing the findings, options and recommendations.  If you have modeling needs or are interested in what modeling can do for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you would like to read the entire article, it is available here.

This month’s newsletter features the Federal 179d Tax Deduction.

This little known deduction is a federal program that allows building owners to immediately depreciate a portion of their expenses (up to $1.80/square foot) for new or upgraded commercial buildings.

The program is available for properties placed in service between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2016. There is no pre-inspection requirement so projects that are already completed can still be certified.

For example, an owner builds a new 40,000 square foot building with variable speed drive HVAC units and LED lighting. Forward Engineers certifies that this building meets the required energy savings and calculates that the building owner is eligible for a deduction of $72,000. A quick walk through of the building verifies that the claimed equipment is in place, all the required paperwork is completed and sent to the owner for use in completing taxes.

We offer this certification at a fraction of the deduction amount and by completing some preliminary calculations you can know exactly what the deduction is before committing to the certification process.

If you are interested in this service, please contact us for more information.