Energy Department recognizes Alpen for window retrofit project

LOUISVILLE — The U.S. Department of Energy has recognized Alpen High Performance Products Inc. of Louisville for its retrofit of windows in the Pacific Tower in Vancouver, Washington.

The manufacturer produces what has been recognized as the most efficient window in the U.S., ranging from an efficiency of R-5 to R-11. One of its products is a retrofit window, called WinSert Plus, which fits in the existing window frame without removing the old window; it increases efficiency at a lower cost than a complete replacement.

The energy department presented its 2023 Retro 30 Award to Alpen, according to a press statement from the company. Using the WinSert, Alpen was able to achieve “a 32% building envelope improvement rating … which reduced the building’s total energy consumption by an average of 13.4%. By opting for secondary windows as opposed to full window replacements, the Pacific Tower retrofit project trimmed its costs by 89%.”

“The Pacific Tower project is recognized as the first secondary window upgrade in the U.S. to achieve a 30% building shell performance improvement, which is huge validation for our company’s WinSert product,” Brad Begin, Alpen  CEO, said in a written statement. “Although not considered a part of the award process, our team was even more pleased to know that the project was executed flawlessly in a fully occupied, four-story commercial building in just over a week, and at a fraction of the cost of full window replacement, with virtually no tenant disruption. Those are some of the intangibles we hear over and over in project after project that we believe makes the WinSert product line a game changer.”

The Retro 30 Award is given out annually by the Department of Energy in support of its Building Envelope Campaign for retrofitted buildings. The department also gives out Novel 40 and Novel 20 awards to new construction projects.

According to a federal research study, windows consume about 30% of all building heating and cooling energy. 

Alpen’s thin-glass technology and insulated fiberglass frames helped achieve the energy efficiency with this project, the company said.