This website uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some of these cookies are used for visitor analysis, others are essential to making our site function properly and improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Click Accept to consent and dismiss this message or Deny to leave this website. Read our Privacy Statement for more.
NFRC’s commercial certification program offers two distinct certification paths, supporting both mass-produced and uniquely engineered systems.
Standard Product Directory Path using the Commercial Trendline Approach (CTA)
Certify standard product lines for use across multiple projects. Products are tested and rated based on standardized NFRC model sizes and configurations.
Product Configuration: Based on NFRC model sizes and configurations from ANSI/NFRC 100, Table 4-3. Optional inclusion of project-specified size performance for energy modeling.
Physical Validation Testing: Required for the model size and configuration to ensure accuracy of simulation data.
Product Use: Reusable across multiple projects; reauthorization is required every five years.
Label Certificate Generation: Licensed Users select approved products from the NFRC commercial product directory to generate label certificates. Licensees may generate unlimited number of label certificates in this path.
When to Use the Standard Product Directory Path
You have a standardized product line.
Products will be used across multiple commercial projects.
You seek efficiency through a reusable certification process.
When bidding or selling products for a project, the label certificate can be produced by any NFRC-approved Licensed User, using products in the NFRC product directory, and is
not a manufacturer's responsibility.
Custom Project Path
Designed for one-off, project-specific fenestration products or configurations, including highly customized, mulled, or composite systems.
Product Configuration: Project-specific sizes and configurations are allowed, including complex or non-standard assemblies. Not all façade components or configurations can be analyzed, including but not limited to corners
or regions of the frame that extend into two varying environmental conditions, which create a three-dimensional heat flow (i.e. parapets, frames extending from conditioned to unconditioned spaces, etc.).
Physical Validation Testing: Not required. Physical testing is not required due to the unique, often non-repeatable nature of custom products and challenges with manufacturability and fitting the unit in
the thermal test chamber.
Product Use: Single-use certification, applicable only to the specific project for which the product is designed. A new label certificate is required for each project and will incur associated label certificate fees.
Label Certificate Generation: Generated upon submission by an NFRC-accredited simulation lab (ASL) or Custom Product Rating Lab (CPRL), then released by NFRC. Each label certificate requires a fee.
When to Use the Custom Project Path
You are designing a unique fenestration system for a specific project.
Your configuration includes non-standard assemblies that aren't feasible to test physically.
The product is unlikely to be used beyond a single building or client.
You are a manufacturer that is requested to provide as-installed performance values.
Certification Path Comparison
Criteria
Standard Path
Custom Path
Product Configuration
NFRC model size (ANSI/NFRC 100, Table 4-3); optional specific sizes.
Project-specific configurations; includes mulled/composite products.
Physical Validation
Required at NFRC model size and configuration.
Not required due to custom nature and manufacturability constraints.
Product Use
Multi-project use; reauthorization every 5 years.
Single-use, project-specific; certification authorization required for each new project.
Label Certificate
Products are selected and generated by licensed users from NFRC product directory.
Submitted and certified per project by NFRC Lab (ASL or CPRL).
Certification Authorization
Yes, the manufacturer with individual products in the NFRC product directory can claim the products are authorized for certification.
The manufacturer's custom product configuration is authorized for certification in situ; does not equate to individual product certification authorization for non-mulled/composite products.
Test Procedures Applicable
ANSI/NFRC 100, ANSI/NFRC 200, ANSI/NFRC 400*, and ANSI/NFRC 500*
The National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) is the trusted, independent, nonprofit certification body for the energy performance of windows, doors, and skylights. With more than 35 years of expertise, NFRC is the standard-bearer in fenestration performance certification, providing the public with objective data that helps stakeholders make informed decisions about product and building performance. NFRC certification ensures that products are tested using precise, scientifically validated methods, resulting in ratings that are fair, accurate and credible. Contact us at info@nfrc.org.
