Airbase publication

Both new and renovated existing buildings will in the future need to be optimized in such a way that can achieve to have nearly no energy use while still providing impeccable indoor climates. Since such buildings can already be assumed to be very well insulated, airtight, and to be equipped with heat recovery systems, one of the next focal points to limiting energy consumption for thermally conditioning the indoor environment will be to possibly reducing the ventilation rate, or to make it in a new way demand controlled.

This paper presents the initial reflections in the frame of Subtask 1 – Setting the Metrics of the IEA EBC Annex 68 – Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings. The first step of IEA Annex 68 aims at summarizing the current knowledge on target pollutants for residential buildings and at evaluating indoor air quality (IAQ), i.e. how to define indices that provide useful information allowing to achieve low risks for health in indoor spaces, and how to enable the comparison of solutions for achieving high IAQ taking into account energy efficiency.

The book of proceedings of the 11^th International BUILDAIR Symposium "Airtight Buildings, Thermography and Ventilation Systems in Practice",  held on May 24- 25  2019, in Hannover, Germany. Contains 25 abstracts.

It is now internationally accepted by the disciplines of structural engineering and building physics that in the interests of energy efficiency heated buildings should be equipped with airtight building envelopes. The airtightness of the building envelope as a fundamental construction objective is therefore no longer in question. But it is...

In October 2016, a research project was completed on the "Evaluation of faults in airtight layers recommended action for construction practitioners." Written by the Fachverband Luftdichtheit im Bauwesen e. V. (Association for Airtightness in the Building Industry), the Aachener Institut für Bauschadensforschung und angewandte Bauphysik gGmbH...

If there are leaks in an airtight layer which cannot be accessed any longer, the question arises as to whether the structure is still fit for purpose, or in more pragmatic terms: "Can rework be avoided?" Rework is always extremely resource intensive, so it must be specifically required. “Moisture safety” - which is purely a matter of building physics...

Quantification and location of moisture penetration through leak-dependent creeping flows from the room into insulated, lightweight wall structures as a function of design, pressure differential, and leak position. Pressure-dependent, high-precision through-flow measurement in a facade test stand and determination of the amount...

All too often, we experts and measurement technicians are totally fixated on airtightness issues. Based on three practical cases, I would like to demonstrate that windproofness, minimal convection in the insulation layer, and the convective separation of different structural elements from one another should also be taken into account...

In recent years, the level of prefabrication in timber construction has increased many times over. Although breaking down wall sections into prefabricated elements presents few problems at certain interfaces as long as this work and subsequent installation are done with care, unfortunately this is not yet the case for the roof elements. This paper...

The load-bearing structures of historical wooden buildings have a large number of joints and penetrations that are difficult to seal. For reasons of preservation of historical monuments, wooden buildings often have to be sealed at the interior of the load-bearing structure. The existing substrates in these areas are not well suited for proper execution...