A predictive method to determine the leakage area needed in residences for IAQ control by infiltration.

A technique has been developed to estimate the equivalent leakage area needed in residences to provide a quantity of infiltration-driven air exchange which exceeds a design value for a desired level of frequency of occurrence. The technique presented applied an air infiltration simulation model to hourly long term weather data to provide hourly estimates of the infiltration weather factor. Cumulative frequency distributions (CFD) were then used to describe the distribution of these data when 1-, 3-, 6-, 8-,12-, 24-, and 48-hour time periods were grouped together. The CFDs were developed for ten locations in North America. An example is presented to determine the necessary equivalent leakage area required to provide a minimum level of infiltration over various time periods. Comparisons between the leakage area required to provide 0.35 ACH on the average as opposed to at least 95% of the 1-, 8-, 12-, and 24-hour time periods are also presented.