Ventilation performances in new Belgian dwellings.

A systematic analysis of recently constructed dwellings in the Flemish Region has beenundertaken within the SENVIVV-project (1 995- 1998) [I]. In total 200 dwellings have beenexamined in detail. The study involved various aspects: energy related building data (thermalinsulation level, net heating demand, installed heating power, etc.), indoor climate(temperature levels in winter and summer), building airtightness, ventilation, appreciation ofthe occupants, etc. This paper focuses on the results of the airtightness measurements thatwere undertaken in 51 of the 200 investigated dwellings. These measurements revealed thatthe global airtightness depends strongly on the building type: on average, terraced houses aremore airtight than detached houses, but less airtight than apartments. There is a wide spreadon the results, especially for detached houses. The worst results are mainly caused by a poorfinishing, due to the fact that a lot of owners do a part of the finishing work themselves.