An increasing number of countries (e.g. Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, UK) include in their regulations either required or recommended minimum airtightness levels with or without mandatory testing. The number of tests performed on a voluntary basis is rapidly increasing either because of the energy penalty for untested buildings in the calculation method or due to the specific requirements of a given program. Furthermore, mandatory testing came gradually into force in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Denmark and France. In addition, the need for airtightness testing is also expected to grow strongly in other countries without specific airtightness requirements as the EP calculation methods typically has envelope airtightness as a parameter in the calculation procedure. Therefore, obtaining good airtightness results through testing can be an effective way to achieve the required EP levels. In this context, the development of competent tester schemes represents an opportunity for improving the reliability of the building airtightness tests including monitoring the application of policies in practice.
The project has been running since its start in the context of the TightVent Airtightness Associations Committee (https://tightvent.eu/partners/taac), with a scope originally restricted to building airtightness but progressively broadened to ductwork airtightness issues as well.
Project Outcomes
Publication(s)
Valérie Leprince and François Rémi Carrié (2014). Reasons behind and lessons learnt with the development of airtightness testers schemes in 11 European countries. Proceedings of the International workshop: "Quality of Methods for Measuring Ventilation and Air Infiltration in Buildings". 18-19 March 2014 Brussels.
Comparison of building preparation rules for airtightness testing in 11 European countries,| Valérie Leprince, François-Rémi Carrié, AIVC conference 2014, Poznan, Poland, September 2014
OVERVIEW - Right and Tight: What’s New in Ductwork and Building Airtightness? Valérie Leprince, Maria Kapsalaki, François Rémi Carrié, October 2017
Impact of Energy Policies on Building and Ductwork Airtightness, V. Leprince, M. Kapsalaki, F. R. Carrié, Buildair symposium 2017, Hannover, Germany, March-April 2017
Building and ductwork airtightness requirements in Europe – Comparison of 10 European countries, Valérie Leprince, François Rémi Carrié, Maria Kapsalaki, AIVC conference 2017, Nottingham, UK, September 2017
Conference(s)
Topical sessions at 35th AIVC - 4th TightVent - 2nd venticool Conference "Ventilation and airtightness in transforming the building stock to high performance". 24-25 September 2014, Poznan:
Airtightness testing: status and trends in competent tester schemes
Topical session at 39th AIVC - 7th TightVent - 5th venticool Conference "Smart ventilation for buildings", 18-19 September 2018, Juan-les-Pins:
- Ductwork airtightness: Ongoing works in some European countries
Workshop(s)
Presentation at the AIVC 2019 Workshop “Quality ventilation is the key to achieving low energy healthy buildings”, 27-28 March 2019, Dublin
Webinar(s)
Airtightness Testing part 1: Status and trends in competent tester schemes in the UK and Belgium. 14 November, 2013
Airtightness testing part 2: Status and trends in competent tester schemes in Germany, the Czech Republic and France. 22 November, 2013
Airtightness testing part 3: Status and trends in competent tester schemes in Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. 20 November, 2014
Ductwork airtightness: Standardisation’s on- going work and an overview of status and trends in Sweden, Japan, Spain and Portugal. 25 January, 2018
Ductwork airtightness measurements: protocols, 25 April 2019