Paper Conference

Proceedings of eSim 2001: 1st Conference of IBPSA-Canada

     

AIRTIGHTNESS TESTING AND AIR FLOW MODELLING OF A THREE-UNIT MULTIFAMILY BUILDING

Sebastiano DePani, Paul Fazio

Abstract: Older multifamily buildings offer a great opportunity for energy savings because they are typically poorly insulated and not airtight. Weatherization programs, such as Hydro-Quebec's ISOLACTION program, have recently targeted this building stock. These programs and the emergence of the renovation market have created a need for practical tools that can be used by the building industry to evaluate the impact of retrofits on energy and ventilation. This paper presents a ventilation case study for a three-unit multifamily building. Both the external and the inter-unit air leakage characteristics of the building were obtained using a single-fan blower door method. This method produces significantly more valuable data than is currently obtained with the whole building depressurization technique. A steady state ventilation model was used with the in-situ test results to investigate the outdoor air distribution and the impact of exhaust ventilation on a unit-per-unit basis.
Paper:
esim2001_7