Improving envelope airtightness : results of a pilot study on 31 houses

This paper presents the results of a field study conducted on 31 houses owned by a French social housing management body. The central objective of our investigation was to propose and evaluate rehabilitation scenarios to improve the envelope airtightness. For this, pre- and post- envelope leakage measurements were performed together with infrared thermography analyses. In parallel, the occupants were interviewed to better understand their interaction with the thermal functions and what their feeling was about the thermal comfort and indoor quality in their homes. These detailed investigations performed on 8 houses showed that the airtightness could be significantly improved (median at 0.3 m3/h/m2 at 4 Pa), and that the refurbishment lead to better thermal comfort.