Since the mid 70's, the construction industry has made significant advances in energy conservation and improved indoor conditions. These improvements, however, are shadowed by an increase in building envelope problems to include water penetration, condensation on and in roofs and exterior walls and cladding damages in many of our newer buildings; These problems have been attributed to uncontrolled air leakage.
The concept of 'build tight - ventilate right' requires minimising air infiltration through theenvelope of a building and then providing adequate ventilation in a controlled manner tosatisfy the fresh air requirements of occupants. This paper describes a simple-to-use designtool (PC based and in spreadsheet format) for predicting the airtightness of office buildingenvelopes either at the design stage or before a major refurbishment.
Detailed field measurement of air leakage and electric forced-air heating system efficiency in nine Pacific Northwest manufactured homes built to adapted Model Conservation Standards were conducted during the 1994 and 1995 heating seasons. The research measured directly both heat delivery efficiency and system efficiency (as defined by ASHRAE in its HVAC Systems and Equipment Handbook) with a short-term alternating coheat test. For this test, a home is alternately heated with the furnace and then with an array of small electric heaters placed in each room which has a supply register.
Equivalent leakage areas (ELAs) of 50 Russian apartments were measured under three conditions: 1) as found, 2) exhaust vents sealed, and 3) vents, electric boxes and windows sealed, in 12 buildings of similar construction. Distributions of ELA per unit of apartment volume are presented for the three conditions. Apartment ELAs were found to vary slightly with floor, indicating that the level of occupant-applied weatherstripping is a function of occupants' perception of infiltration rates and that lower floor occupants perceive larger infiltration rates than upper floor occupants.
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