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Title: Durable Airtightness in Single-Family Dwellings: Field Measurements and Analysis

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1220518· OSTI ID:1220518
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Durability of the building envelope is important to new homes that are increasingly built with improved levels of airtightness. It is also important to weatherized homes such that energy savings from retrofit measures, such as air sealing, are persistent. This paper presents a comparison of air leakage measurements collected in November 2013 through March 2014, with two sets of prior data collected between 2001-2003 from 17 new homes located near Atlanta, GA, and 17 homes near Boise, ID that were weatherized in 2007-2008. The purpose of the comparison is to determine if there are changes to the airtightness of building envelopes over time. The air leakage increased in all but one of the new homes, with a mean increase of about 25%. A regression analysis was performed to describe the relationship between prior and current measurements in terms of normalized leakage (NL).

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1220518
Report Number(s):
LBNL-180837; 7136
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English