English

Ventilation’s historical goal has been to assure sufficient air change rates in buildings from a hygienic point of view. Regarding its potential impact on energy consumption, ventilation is being reconsidered. An important challenge for low energy buildings lies in the need to master airflows through the building envelope.

Reducing adventitious infiltration in order to save energy is important and is highlighted by the building standards of many countries.  This operational infiltration is often inferred via the measurement of the air leakage rate at a pressure differential of 50 Pascals.  Some building codes, such as the UK’s Standard Assessment Procedure, assume a simple relationship between the air leakage rate and mean infiltration rate during the heating season, the so-called leakage-infiltration ratio, which is scaled to account for the physical and environmental properties of a dwelling.  The scaling d

Pushed at first by the labels backed onto the 2005 French energy performance (EP) regulation, and later on by the 2012 energy performance regulation, which imposes envelope airtightness requirements for any new dwellings, and pulled by a growing interest for low-energy labels, an important market transformation is observed in France on envelope airtightness measurement.

Since January 1st 2013, the French energy performance (EP) regulation requires building airtightness level to be justified to a lower-than-required value. These requirements represent an important change in the airtightness market. As a consequence, it is the State’s responsibility to accompany this market evolution and to supervise the implementation of the quality in building airtightness. French regulation allows two ways to justify the airtightness value for the building envelope.

From 2006 till 2012, the 2005 energy performance (EP) regulation (RT 2005) did not entail any obligation to justify the envelope airtightness level. As a consequence, asking for the certification of airtightness quality management approaches was a voluntary request from constructors. Thus, they might be allowed to take into account a better-than-default value into the thermal calculation. Since 2012, French 2012 EP regulation (RT 2012) requires building airtightness level to be justified, with two ways of justification.

RESHYVENT Cluster Project on Demand Controlled Hybrid Ventilation in Residential Buildings with Specific Emphasis on the Integration of Renewables 

RESHYVENT report No: RESHYVENT-WP8-D8.1
RESHYVENT work package: WP 8 Specifications and terms of reference