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Achieving Airtight Ducts in Manufactured Housing
Abstract
This Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC)
study, conducted under the auspices of the U.S.
Department of Energy's Building America
Industrialized Housing Partnership (BAIHP),
compares mastic sealed duct systems to tape sealed
systems by showing measured total duct leakage
(CFM25TOTAL and QnTOTAL) and/or measured leakage to
the outside (CFM25OUT and QnOUT) in 190
manufactured home floors or home sections.
All manufacturers were considering or
actively working toward achieving duct leakage
below 3% of the conditioned floor area (QnOUT=0.03),
consistent with Energy Star Manufactured Homes
criteria.
Previous field tests suggest that CFM25OUT
accounts for about half of CFM25TOTAL.
These data show that achieving
CFM25TOTAL=6% during production was generally
correlated with achieving CFM25OUT=3% in mastic
sealed systems, but less reliably with taped systems.
Cost for achieving duct tightness goals range from $4
to $8 including duct testing on the assembly line
Citation
McIlvaine, J.; Beal, D.; Moyer, N.; Chasar, D.; Chandra, S. (2004). Achieving Airtight Ducts in Manufactured Housing. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /4608.