English

Airborne contaminants cause significant harm to populations of people. People spend most of their time in their own homes and so their greatest exposure is likely to occur there. Existing standards that govern Acceptable Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in residential buildings only consider a few contaminants. Exposure to them is limited using threshold mean concentrations over some period of time, but they do consider the harm they cause to populations of people.

This study presents a health-centered approach to quantify and compare the chronic harm caused by indoor air contaminants using disability-adjusted life-year (DALY). The aim is to understand the chronic harm caused by airborne contaminants in dwellings and identify the most harmful. Epidemiological and toxicological evidence of population morbidity and mortality is used to determine harm intensities, a metric of chronic harm per unit of contaminant concentration. Uncertainty is evaluated in the concentrations of 45 indoor air contaminants commonly found in dwellings.

The book of proceedings of the 14^th International BUILDAIR Symposium "Airtight Buildings, Thermography and Ventilation Systems in Practice",  held on May 16-17, 2025 in Hannover, Germany. Contains 44 abstracts.

The purpose of this work is to evaluate and compare various regression techniques—specifically Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Weighted Least Squares (WLS), and Weighted Line of Organic Correlation (WLOC)—in the context of building airtightness measurements as prescribed by ISO 9972. The goal is to improve the accuracy...

During this presentation I will discuss different methods of regression analysis and error calculation with regard to the review of the measurement standard ISO 9972. I will explain these methods and the ideas behind the formulas. I will present examples and charts to explain the different methods and evaluate them on the basis...

Part of the AEGIR-project is to aim for a digital sustainable framework that boosts the take-up of deep retrofitting, achieving nearly zero energy buildings. For this, Fraunhofer ISE is working on a Python-based program to automatically find optimal routes for facade-integrated ventilation ductwork. This study outlines a methodology...

Is it possible to derive an outside air flow rate from the net air exchange rate nL50 and use it for ventilating dwelling units? We calculated the outside air flow rates via leaks in the envelope area as per standards and matched them with the values from real construction projects. Typically, the outside air flow rate via infiltration is derived...

As a consultant and operator of Blower Door testing, one often wonders about the durability of materials over a building's lifetime. It is not uncommon to see products where tapes and sealing materials fail after a very short period. This raises the question of whether airtightness can truly be considered a quality parameter...

The certification of the first Low Energy hospital tested by the Passive House methodology for large-scale buildings in Thessaloniki, Greece. The Passive House protocol for Airtightness measurement of high-rise buildings was followed and the EN 13829 standard was applied for the measurement. As a medical facility for...

Performing an airtightness test of a very airtight large building under special indoor climatic conditions may still represent a challenging task. This paper reports on practical experience with airtightness testing of two freezing rooms of approx. 200.000 m³ at internal temperatures of -20 °C and +8 °C...