To secure our energy independence, combat climate challenges, and strengthen our economy, we must fully implement all cost-effective energy savings measures across the built environment over the next 15 years.

Today’s highly insulating windows must be a priority to successfully deliver on our Nation’s most critical imperatives.

“We’ll also lead a revolution in energy efficiency, modernizing more than 75 percent of federal buildings and improving the efficiency of more than 2 million American homes. This will not only create jobs, it will cut the federal energy bill by a third and save taxpayers $2 billion each year and save Americans billions of dollars more on their utility bills.”

President Obama’s remarks at the Department of Energy
February 9, 2009

Improving The Energy Efficiency of Low-Income Homes

• Using the most advanced technologies and testing protocols available in the housing industry, WAP delivers important benefits:
• Significant, cost-effective energy savings
• No- and low-cost reductions in greenhouse emissions
• Manufacturing jobs for production of efficient equipment and materials
• Construction / installation jobs
• Increased household comfort and energy cost savings
• Household health and safety benefits (e.g. reduction of lead paint exposures associated with old windows)
• Reduction in the nation’s dependence on foreign oil

New WAP Resources

Over the past three decades, WAP has weatherized over 3.3 million homes. The DOE estimates more than 15 million low income households still require weatheriza­tion. With legislative limits on average invest­ment per home and today’s rapid advances in efficient technology, not all cost-effective measures have necessarily been made even at the homes previously weatherized. The American recovery and reinvestment Act addresses both of these issues by:

• Increasing funding from about $0.2 billion in 2008 to $5 billion for 2009
• Doubling the average investment allowed per household enables more complete implementation of cost-effective measures Challenges for WAP

The increase of total funding as well as per-household investment allowance presents challenges in implementing WAP:

• Scaling up, and doing so rapidly
• Assessing a more complete range of cost-effective measures, and not just lowest cost items
• Ensuring that the WAP audit tools accurately represent the cost and performance of currently available efficient technology and services
• Revising state and agency WAP plans and agreements where necessary

The #1 Energy Culprit

While windows have generally not played a major role in WAP, windows are the single largest source of energy loss in homes. Up to 50% of heating & cooling costs are lost through typical single and dual pane windows, yielding poor energy-saving performance and low (or no) cost-effectiveness. As a result, combined with associated high labor costs (e.g. installation), audit tools have previously not accounted for windows.

The increase of per-household investment allowance, newly revised audit tools (eg. NEAT), and the advancement of energy efficient materials have made super-insulating windows available, for the first time, as a cost-effective energy efficient & energy saving solution available for weatherization programs today.

SeriousWindows WAP Series are super-insulating vinyl replacement windows de­signed specifically for low-income housing homes and projects administered by Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and States. Offering super-insulating full frame R-value of up to R-4.8, the WAP Series can reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 40%. All SeriousWindows WAP Series windows exceed Energy Star 2010 revisions (R-3.3).

"Serious Materials just reopened a manufacturing plant outside of Pittsburgh. Last year, that factory was shuttered and more than one hundred jobs were lost. The town was devastated. Today, that factory is whirling back to life, and Serious Materi­als is rehiring the folks who lost their jobs. And those workers will now have a new mission: produc­ing some of the most energy-efficient windows in the world."

- President Obama, March 23, 2009

About Serious Materials

Serious Materials develops and manufactures sustainable green building materials that save energy, save money, improve comfort, and aggressively address climate change. Full frame R-val­ue SeriousWindows™ and SeriousGlass™ commercial glass reduce heating and cooling energy costs by up to 50%. QuietRock® soundproof drywall and QuietGlass® reduce material use, enhance livability, and support dense urban construction. EcoRock™, the only true green alternative to gypsum drywall and five times more environmentally friendly, uses 80% less energy in its core production and has the potential to save billions of pounds of CO2 annually. SeriousWindows, SeriousGlass, and super-insulating ThermaRock™ drywall support energy efficiency funding programs as outlined under The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) including Weatherization (WAP), Green Federal Buildings, State Energy Program (SEP), Energy Efficiency Block Grants, Energy Tax Credit for Consumers, and Tax Deductions for Commercial Buildings. The company was commended by both President Obama and Vice President Biden for its advanced energy-saving materials and the work it is doing to create American green manufacturing jobs.