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A voluntary certification for very low energy buildings has been implemented in 2013 in France, which requires among other the ventilation systems to be controlled by an independent technician. To ensure the expertise of these technicians, a certification scheme has been implemented for the airtightness measurement of ductwork. This certification will soon be required for the ventilation system controls.
From both these frames, inspection data has been collected. The purpose of this paper is to go through the ductwork airtightness tests and the visual inspections to establish a picture of the quality of the implementation of ventilation systems in low energy buildings in France.
This paper describes the diverse requirements in both regulation and voluntary certifications and describes the ventilation systems typically implemented in French low energy buildings, viewed from the data collected. The paper further discusses the ductwork airtightness performance and the visual controls collected from the database. The paper finally deals with some difficulties encountered today in implementing high quality ventilation systems.