airtightness

Windows according to the Passive House Standard 2016 require a ten times more airtight airtightness class (EN 14351) [1] than around 1990. The installation layer of the windows is constantly moving closer into the area of the insulating layer with possibly moisture-sensitive materials. Therefore, joint sealing of construction and connection joints...

With the German Energy Savings Regulation EnEV 2014 the legislators have qualified the requirements for large apartment buildings (VL > 1.500 m³). In addition to the air change rate (n50 ≤ 3,0 h-1 or n50 ≤ 1,5 h-1 depending on the ventilation technology used) the envelope-based air permeability (q50 ≤ 2,5 m³h-1m-2) is now also required...

According to the legal regulations and the rules of technology (as generally accepted) new buildings are to be constructed permanently airtight. In order to do so, an airtight building envelope has to be carefully planned prior to the actual construction process. This is how it is stipulated in the German Industrial Standard...

Environmental control (heat, air and moisture flows and their effects) started 90 years ago on Prairies of Canada and USA. It has always been based on occupant’s interest in a better indoor environment and driven by builders. More recently, when energy efficiency and durability considerations became part of socio-economic...

Stricter requirements, e.g. for thermal insulation and moisture protection, as well as progression in energy-efficient building have led to the development of special building materials and metrological equipment. Over the last two decades, airtightness measurements, frequently also called “BlowerDoor tests”, have become increasingly...

Proposals for solutions in accordance with German standard DIN 4108 Teil 7 What does real life look like? What can actually be solved? Challenges, interface issues between the different trades and crafts, and possible suggestions for solutions. The industry-wide educational and training center of the Baden-Württemberg...

Can the minimum air change in naturally window-ventilated units be covered only through leakages? In general, the infiltration airflow rate is dependent on meteorological conditions, especially wind pressure on the building / unit, and with regard to thermal effects, the temperature differential between the interior and the exterior...

Several rehabilitation projects of apartment buildings all used passive house components, but implemented different airtightness designs. Two projects (24 and 52 apartments in Ludwigshafen and Frankfurt am Main, respectively) were carried out in the traditional way, using the interior plaster in the area of the external walls...

The airtightness test result is typicaly compared with a limiting value (compliance check), with the results of other tests of the same object by the same technician (when controling the evolution of airtightness during construction process) or with a test result of another technician (when verifying a suspicious result). These tasks need a...

In Belgium, airtightness of buildings is taken into account in the regional Energy Performance of Buildings (EPB) regulations. When measured, it can be used in the calculation in place of a default unfavourable value and therefore improve the calculated performance. Supplementary specifications to the European standard...