This paper illustrates the airtightness and ventilation performance of a recently built ecological house in Helsinki, Finland. The wood frame house, which is built with no plastic vapour retarder, has a satisfactory air tightness (3 ach at 50 Pa). The ventilation measurements show that the outdoor ventilation rate provided by the natural ventilation system tended to be lacking (i.e., less than the required value of 0.5 ach) even though the measured CO2 concentrations were generally satisfactory (i.e., below 1000 ppm) when the bedroom doors were open.
A major concern of those wishing to limit the energy use in buildings is the growing trend towards installing air-conditioning in new and refurbished buildings. Building design, high thermal loads, and a desire for perceived comfort, contribute to an ever-growing demand for full air-conditioning. Therefore, to counter the impact on building energy use, it is essential that building design and operation is developed to minimise the use of air conditioning systems.
Most dwellings in the United States are ventilated primarily through leaks in the building shell (i.e., infiltration) rather than by whole-house mechanical ventilation systems. Consequently, quantification of envelope air-tightness is critical to determining how much energy is being lost through infiltration and how much infiltration is contributing toward ventilation requirements. Envelope air tightness and air leakage can be determined from fan pressurization measurements with a Blower Door. Tens of thousands of unique fan pressurization measurements have been made of U.S.
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