Airtightness of Commercial and Institutional Buildings: Blowing Holes in the Myth of Tight Buildings.
Airtightness of Commercial and Institutional Buildings:
Blowing Holes in the Myth of Tight Buildings.
(869 K)
Persily, A. K.
Airtightness and Airflow in Buildings: Principles.
Thermal Envelopes VII Conference. Proceedings.
December 6-10, 1998, Clearwater, FL, 829-837 pp, 1998.
Sponsor:
Department of Energy, Washington, DC
Keywords:
commercial buildings; institutions; airtightness; air
leakage; building envelope; building performance;
infiltration; thermal envelope
Abstract:
It is often assumed that commercial and institutional
buildings are fairly airtight and that envelope air
leakage does not have a significant impact on energy
consumption and indoor air quality in these buildings.
Furthermore, it is also assumed that more recently
constructed buildings are tighter than older buildings.
The fact of the matter is that very few data are
available on the airtightness of building envelopes in
commercial and institutional buildings. The data that
do exist show significant levels of air leakage in these
buildings and do not support correlations of
airtightness with building age, size, or construction.
This paper presents the airtightness data that are
available and the limited conclusions that can be drawn
from these data.
