Green building materials manufacturer Serious Materials is now offering a line of super-insulating windows that can be deployed by states and other agencies looking to make low-income housing projects more energy efficient under the U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program.

Serious Materials introduced the line, called the SeriousWindows WAP Series, today. The company says the product was specifically designed for use as replacement windows in WAP projects and can deliver as much as 12 times more energy savings per household than other weatherization measures.

The performance target aligns with the weatherization program's goal of reducing energy costs for low-income households by ratcheting up energy efficiency. The Recovery Act gave a big boost to the weatherization program, whose funding has grown to more than $5.5 billion for the next three years.

Windows represent a $20 billion market in the U.S., and about 5 percent of all the energy in American literally goes right out of them, Serious Materials CEO Kevin Surace is fond of saying. "Our high R-value windows — very insulative windows — are three and four times better than virtually any window or glass by any manufacturer," Surace told GreenerBuildings.com this week.

The company's products and its efforts to reopen two window factories and put workers back on the job have been lauded by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Weatherization can provide "the single greatest immediate impact on the environment," and it's "the immediate biggest bang for the buck," Biden said in April while visiting the window factory in Chicago that Serious Materials brought back to life this spring.

_{Image courtesy of Serious Materials.}