air infiltration

The 2012 French thermal regulation will include a minimum requirement for residential buildings envelope airtightness, with two options to justify its treatment: a) measurement at commissioning or b) adoption of an approved quality management approach. This paper describes the qualification process for air-tightness measurement authorized technicians when their results are to be used in the EP-calculation method. Our analyses underline the importance of the qualification process to ensure homogeneous measurement practice among technicians.

Origins of toxic gas clouds may be diverse, including accidental releases due to industry or to hazardous materials transportation, or biological or chemical attacks. A protection to such a phenomenon consists in taking advantage of the protection offered by buildings against airborne pollutants. In this event, people can shelter in a building and wait until the toxic plume has gone.

Wind is a potential dominant factor regarding the air infiltration through building envelopes. Due to its dynamic characteristics, quite complex aerodynamic phenomena arise around a structure or through cracks and openings. Energy perfomance is influenced by the climate conditions and thus it should be much more researched. Despite the fact that steady state measurements of infiltration rates offer a simple and easy way of estimating an enclosure’s airtightness level, a supplement to those methods might be imposed.

It is foreseen that the 2012 version of the French regulation will include a minimum requirement for the envelope airtightness of residential buildings, with two options to justify its treatment: a) measurement at commissioning or b) adoption of an approved quality management approach. This paper describes the qualification process for authorizing technicians to conduct airtightness measurement when the result is to be used in the EP-calculation method. It also discusses the requirements set for approved quality management approaches.

The approval of the Technical Building Code has meant major changes in the construction of multi-storey buildings in Spain. One of the most important revisions, with respect to the buildings erected prior to the Technical Building Code, has been the obligation to ventilate each one of its rooms. Depending on the use and occupancy a minimum flow rate of ventilation is required in each room.

Explicit algebraic equations for calculation of wind and stack driven ventilation were developed by parametrically matching exact solutions to the flow equations for building envelopes. These separate wind and stack effect flow calculation procedures were incorporated in a simple natural ventilation model, AIM-2, with empirical functions for superposition of wind and stack effect and for estimating wind shelter.

Tracer gas techniques have been the most appropriate experimental method of determining airflows and ventilation rates in houses. However, current trends to reduce greenhouse gas effects have prompted the need for alternative techniques, such as passive sampling. In this research passive sampling techniques have been used to demonstrate the potential to fulfil these requirements by using solutions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibres.

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directivementions that each member states' energyperformance (EP) calculation methodology mayinclude envelope airtightness. In fact, manymember states have included envelopeairtightness in their EP calculation method.Many countries have also specific requirementsfor ductwork airtightness. However, they seemto be unequally successful in achieving a markettransformation. This paper describes themechanisms that have been used in somecountries, with a special focus on success storieswhich could inspire other member states.

This research was to assess the performance of air infiltration, the corresponding energy consumption, indoor contaminant level for residential buildings in Harbin, a typical city in the severe cold region of China. Based on questionnaire survey and field measurements, the prototypical apartment building includes its physical structure, air leakage and life style of occupants has been determined. Then unsteady-state numerical simulations were carried out by the use of COMIS.

Single- and double-section manufactured homes were instrumented in 2001-2003 to measure continuous energy usage and air infiltration with respect to the environmental conditions of a windy cold dry climate. The test site near Arlington, Wyoming, USA is ideal for testing the energy (and structural) performance of manufactured housing due to the naturally occurring high winds (in excess of 35 m/s annually) and temperature extremes (+35 to -35C). Tests included tracer gas monitoring, pressurized leakage tests, and infrared (IR) video scans.