English

With the background of different climates within Norway it was interesting to show the resulting differences in energy demand for the same typical office building. Further it was important to analysethe effectiveness of a climate adapted design that tightens the building envelope and increases theefficiency of the heat recovery system. The total energy consumption is simulated for three differentconstruction standards in different latitudes and the results are compared. First, energy budgetsaccording to Norwegian regulations were calculated.

An object reconstructed for residential purposes approved to be not sufficiently air tight. With methods that are generally known as inappropriate, it was tried to improve the air tightness subsequently to a reasonable level. Therefore, joints were formed elastically, cavities were filled with insulating material and slots were foamed with construction foam. Costs clearly stayed below the ones that were actually needed for the remediation of the building, but also the success fell short of which could have been achieved with professional methods.

There is increasing recognition of the importance of quantifying the airtightness of large commercialand residential buildings. Often these tests must be performed with multiple fans and technicians,usually within a narrow time window. Despite the best preparations, surprises and interruptions areunfortunately the norm. It is therefore critical to streamline the hardware and software.Challenges to be overcome include time varying and spatially non-uniform envelope pressures andthe need to simultaneously capture multiple fan flow readings.

Attic moisture control is one of the key issues addressed by the hygrothermal design of wood-frame houses. In general, exfiltration and natural ventilation are recognized as the main factors in determining the hygrothermal behaviour of an attic. Thus, hygrothermal analysis using a network flow model should be performed in order to predict the hygrothermal behaviour of an attic. In this paper, sensitive analyses for predicting hygrothermal behaviour were implemented to study the design value for attic moisture control.

This paper investigates the practical feasibility of an exterior air barrier for the construction of a recently constructed light weight passive house in Ghent, Belgium. The paper discusses the results of pressurisation tests, conducted in the different construction stages of the building envelope. The windbreaker, which will also act as an air barrier, consists of bituminous mixed wood fibres plates with a watertight bitumen impregnated layer on the top face. Measurements have been performed with and without sealing the joints.

The combination of air tightness measurements and thermography introduces new application areas for both practices: the building thermography will be extended by a systematic leakage locating in the building envelope and during air tightness measurements, effects of air infiltrations through leaks can be shown. Scopes of application are et. al.

The developed method uses Radon as natural tracergas, which appears everywhere in the nature hence in all buildings as well. Contrary to blowerdoor-measurement, pressure and suction areas are coevally available, depending on the pressure difference due to wind and temperature. Generally, suction areas overweight due to wind. Depending on the size of the building and the objective target, the measurements last about 6 days, min. 1 day until max. a few weeks. In this process, all interior doors can be left closed or opened, depending on default and use.

In order to determine the causes of SHS (Sick House Syndrome), a field survey on indoor air quality and health conditions of occupants has been conducted for 8 years in 77 detached wooden houses in Japan. The result of this survey had been reported partly in the proceedings of Indoor Air 2008 (Yoshino et al., 2008). In most these houses, we have measured the level of air-tightness and ventilation airflow rates. For some houses, the air-tightness level and ventilation rate were measured several times within a few years.

From the year 2007 the buildings must have energy efficiency calculations, which requirements arenow part of Building Code Book. This is based on European Performance of Buildings Directive.This presentation will discuss about the results collected by VTT from multi-storey apartment housesand one-family houses mainly during 2008-2009. The biggest problem is how to improve the airtightness of existing building stock, because new building covers only 1-2 %/year/from the totalbuilding stock.

Already in the year 1983, the general basis paper for noting air tightness, which was elaborated by the Swedish construction council for the AIVC, pointed to the particular risk of moisture stresses in consequence of water vapor carriage due to air flow through leakages in buildings. In Germany in 1989, a laboratory examination of the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP), Stuttgart, indicated that joints in roomsided vapor barriers produce a order of magnitude higher risk of humidification than the mere diffusion of vapor.