Dear Editor

I’m sure you’ve had a whole host of letters about the fact that although the proposed Regulations have been common knowledge for some time, they have now been finalised, putting an end to months of speculation about what may or may not be the outcome. As we suspected, the final version of the legislation demands either a Window Energy Rating of ‘C’ or higher, or a u-value of 1.6 – lower than the previous requirement for a u-value of 2.0. All replacement windows will need to meet this more stringent legislation by 1st October.

So companies can choose between two methods of compliance, but both are driving the industry towards more energy efficient products. As suspected, this will have a huge impact on the entire market. To recap, as of 1st October, every single replacement window will have to have either a Window Energy Rating of ‘C’ or higher, or must meet the u-value requirement of 1.6. So every replacement window installed, whether it?s your standard window or not will have to meet the tightened legislation, which of course includes fully reinforced windows and vertical sliders for example.

Don’t forget this means companies who are intending to achieve compliance with a Window Energy Rating and have already done the work to get their standard window ‘C’ rated for example, they will still have to ensure they can achieve the same thing on all of their other combinations of window.

We know our ‘Journey to C’ initiative only scratched the surface of what needs to be done, but we plan to continue to invest in practical support to help the industry achieve what it needs to achieve. The entire fenestration supply chain needs to start marching in step now.

Yours sincerely

Andy Jones
Managing Director, Edgetech