The question buyers actually ask
Will this blind, curtain, awning or film make a measurable difference to my
bills?
is the right question; window coverings exist to manage light and heat.
The honest general answer is that a rating scheme is how you would compare
products without taking a brochure's word for it, which makes the state of
Australia's two schemes the real consumer story.
WERS: the one that works
The Window Energy Rating Scheme is owned and managed by AGWA, and its scope,
in the association's own description, covers windows, glazed doors, skylights,
applied window films and screening products
, rated for their impact on annual
whole-of-house energy use. Ratings follow the protocols of the Australian
Fenestration Rating Council, the accreditation framework the Building Code of
Australia leans on for window performance. For this masthead's beat the key fact
is that applied window film is explicitly in scope: film is the
one window covering you can buy against an independent, accredited energy rating
today, searchable through the scheme's product database at
werslink.com.au. (That
search tool is the useful part of the WERS web presence; the scheme's descriptive
pages live on agwa.com.au.)
WincovER: the one that has gone quiet
WincovER is the Window Shading Association of Australia's energy rating scheme for internal and external window coverings, the blinds, curtains, shutters and awnings themselves. Its own materials describe a 10-star system rating heating and cooling performance separately, which is exactly the instrument a coverings buyer would want. The scheme's public face, though, has stopped: its news page contains a single article, dated 11 April 2021, with nothing since, and its "Certified Products" link returns a 404, so there is no working public search of rated coverings at all. We checked both live on 5 July 2026. That is a dormancy measured in years, not a slow news quarter, and we note WSAA is the industry body for the sector it would be rating.
Australia's two window-related energy rating schemes, as at 5 July 2026
| WERS | WincovER | |
|---|---|---|
| Run by | Australian Glass and Window Association (AGWA) | Window Shading Association of Australia (WSAA) |
| Rates | Windows, glazed doors, skylights, applied window films, screening products | Internal and external window coverings: blinds, curtains, shutters, awnings |
| Framework | AFRC protocols, referenced through the Building Code of Australia | Own 10-star heating and cooling ratings |
| Last public news | Active association site | One item, dated 11 April 2021 |
| Product search | Working (werslink.com.au) | 404 (certified-products page) |
Sources: each scheme's own site, fetched 5 July 2026; links in the story text. Neither scheme is a government program; both are industry-administered.
What to do with this, today
- Buying film: ask for the product's WERS rating and check it in the database yourself. An accredited rating exists; a supplier who cannot point to one is telling you something.
- Buying blinds, curtains, shutters or awnings for energy reasons: know that no working Australian public rating currently backs any energy number on the brochure. That does not mean coverings do nothing; physics and overseas schemes say otherwise. It means an Australian star-rating-style claim for a covering cannot presently be verified against a working public register, so treat specific percentage claims as the vendor's own, and ask for their test basis.
- Watch this space honestly: if WSAA revives WincovER's public register, that is genuine news for buyers and we will report it. Until then, the scheme's dormancy is the single most useful fact a coverings buyer can know about energy claims.