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A Prediction of Energy Savings Resulting from Building Infiltration Control
Abstract
Heat transfer through building walls
consists of three main components:
conduction heat transfer, solar gain and
infiltration heat transfer. An interaction
among these three heat transfer
components alters the effective heat
transfer through a wall, working to
reduce or increase it. This study uses
simulation to evaluate the potential
energy impact of the interaction when
several different strategies for
controlling air leakage direction and
velocity in building envelope
components are implemented.
The simulations performed in this study
show that significant energy savings can
be realized with the use of controlled
airflow through non-airtight walls in a
building. Comparing the energy load of
a building which uses airflow control in
its walls with the energy load found
with a standard calculation (where the
interaction effect is not considered),
annual energy load savings were found
in a warm climate as high as 17%. The
results were less promising when
compared against the performance of a
building experiencing simulated natural
airflow (and heat recovery) through its
exterior walls: the best annual load
savings percentage was 10% in a warm
climate. It was found that in a cooler
climate, the natural flow configuration
performed about as well as any of the
artificial airflow configurations, so airflow control is not recommended in
cool climates.
Citation
McWatters, K.; Claridge, D. E.; Liu, M. (1996). A Prediction of Energy Savings Resulting from Building Infiltration Control. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6691.