Next Generation Window and Building Envelope Systems

This report examines advanced window and building envelope systems and recommends further research activities to hasten their broad market adoption. This study:

• Assessed the current state-of-the-art and future technology options in windows and building envelope systems.
• Evaluated the barriers to commercial-scale use in California. Identified the market segments that present the most promising opportunities.
• Recommended research, development, and demonstration initiatives to overcome identified, existing barriers to broad adoption.

Incorporating research from primary and secondary sources, emerging energy-efficient technologies were investigated in three spaces: windows, insulation, and air sealing. Primary barriers to high-performing products include high costs, lack of customer awareness of their benefits, manufacturer reliance on market pull (where the market needs a product and designers then make a product to fill that need), and lack of stricter energy-efficient building codes. If these barriers can be overcome, next-step markets to target include the passive house community in the near term and the retrofit space in the long term. High-potential implementation opportunities exist in prefabricated wall retrofits for multifamily housing and housing with thin building envelopes, such as manufactured homes.