Uncontrolled air infiltration in buildings is compromising energy efficiency and wrecking attempts to reduce CO2 emissions. The time is right to act. This month, Building Services Journal announces a joint initiative involving the CIBSE, BRE and the BSRIA, aimed at improving building airtightness. In an exclusive report, ClBSE president Geoffrey Brundrett launches the airtightness campaign.
This paper deals with the relationship between the characteristics of ventilation and the architectural features on three types of Japanese houses representative of the recent historical evolution in the building of dwellings: a traditional well ventilated house in a rural area, a typical postwar house with a central corridor and a multi-family house of high air-tightness in an urban area. The investigations were carried out based on 3-D numerical air flow simulations with realistic wind conditions.
Manufactured homes, often referred to as HUD-code homes, are continuing to grow in importance as a national housing resource and represented 23% of all new home construction in 1995. In spite of groundbreaking work to characterize the performance of air distribution systems in site-built housing, in new manufactured homes, the subject has been largely ignored. Field data was gathered from 24 typical new HUD-code homes in four regions in the continental United States. This study describes air distribution system losses estimated through an analysis of system and distribution efficiencies.
The National Building Code 1985 identified the need to control movement of air through the exterior walls of buildings. The upcoming 1995 National Building Code has now placed recommendations on the amount of allowable leakage.
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