Energy savings through reduced air infiltration in houses.

Energy is consumed in heating the air infiltrating into houses maintained at temperatures above ambient. By using climatic data tapes and a daily profile for indoor temperature of a house, it is possible to calculate factors, which in conjunction with a relationship between air change rate and wind speed enable the energy consumption due to infiltration to be calculated on amonthly basis. This has been done for Melbourne, Australia and the factors tabulated on a monthly, annual and heating season (April Nov) basis. The energy consumption for the heating season has been plotted for a range of values along with the energy savings possible if infiltration is restricted to 0.5 ach. The benefits of house tightening are discussed.