Market access
Philippines: what the market requires
The Philippines is the most typhoon-exposed large country in the western Pacific, and the window on a Philippine project is specified against a wind load that a local engineer signs, not against a marketing figure. This page sets out how the wind figure is arrived at, why the commonly quoted wind speeds disagree with each other, and what has to be settled before the order is placed.
The documents that govern the order
NSCP 2015 (7th edition), Section 207 — Wind loads
The National Structural Code of the Philippines, seventh edition, carries the wind provisions in Section 207. The basic wind speed is read from the contour map for the occupancy category of the building, and the pressure is then worked up from terrain, height and gust factors.
The engineer of record
The design wind speed is a site fact, not a product fact. A licensed civil or structural engineer determines it for the project and signs it. A window rated to a figure nobody signed is rated to nothing.
Published wind speeds for the Philippines do not agree with each other.
Two kinds of source circulate. One describes the country as divided into three wind zones carrying 200, 250 and 300 km/h. The other states that NSCP 2015 carries no wind zones at all, and that the basic wind speed is read from the contour map for the site. Both appear in material written by practising engineers.
The practical consequence is that a quoted wind speed cannot be checked against the code without the site and the occupancy category. Ask which figure of the code the number was read from, and ask for the engineer who signed it. Where the two disagree, the engineer of record decides, not the supplier.
Who does what
Engineer of record
Determines and signs the design wind speed and pressure for the site, from the code.
Window manufacturer
States the rating the unit was tested to, the tested size, and the report number behind it.
Importer or contractor
Reconciles the two: a rating that does not cover the signed pressure is not a compliant unit.
Before the crate is closed
Test report with number and laboratory
What makes the rating checkable. A figure without a report number is an assertion.
Tested size
A rating covers the tested size. A larger leaf is a different case and has to be asked about.
Glass specification
Pane, thickness, and whether the build is laminated, because the wind case is a glass case.
What circulates, and why it is wrong
A single wind speed quoted for the whole country
The figure depends on the site and the occupancy category. A number that is not tied to a location is not a code value.
A rating given as a wind speed rather than a tested pressure
A window is rated against a pressure it was tested to, in pascals, on a tested size. A wind speed in km/h is a structural input, not a window rating.
What buyers ask
What wind speed should a Philippine window be rated to?
There is no single answer, and this page will not invent one. The design wind speed comes from the engineer of record reading the code for the site and the occupancy category. What a supplier can state is the pressure the unit was tested to, the tested size, and the report number — and the buyer checks that the tested pressure covers the signed one.
Do typhoon-rated windows exist as a separate product line?
No. A window is rated against the pressure it was tested to. The same system tested to a higher pressure is a different rating, not a different product, and the difference shows up in the frame section, the glass build and the hardware rather than in the name.
Is jalousie glazing acceptable on a typhoon-exposed elevation?
It is the one opening type widely described as unsafe in a typhoon, because louvre glass becomes airborne when the latch lets go. On an exposed elevation the alternatives are casement, awning, tilt-and-turn or fixed, with the glass build appropriate to the signed pressure.
What should we ask for before placing the order?
The report number and the issuing laboratory, the tested size, and the date. Then confirm the tested pressure covers the figure the engineer of record signed. Settling this after the crate is closed means the unit either passes on paper or has to be replaced.
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