Airtightness field tests of residential buildings in Dalian, China

Abstract

There is little known on the airtightness performance of residential buildings in China. The present study intends to investigate the airtightness performance of ten detached houses in China's cold area using “blower door test”. The thermal infrared imager and smoke pencil were used to find out the typical air leakage places in the building envelope.Test results show that the air change rate at the pressure difference of 50 Pa of the tested houses varies from 1.89 h−1 to 0.84 h−1 with a mean value of 1.42 h−1. The typical air leakage places happen at the reserved holes in the outer wall that were not well filled after construction, the frames of window and door that were not fitted correctly and the draught seal was deformed, and the check valves at the inlets of the discharge flue and exhaust airway in the house.The tested detached houses were ranked by their airtightness performance. The total joint length of the opening part of the windows and doors was estimated for each detached house and a linear correlation between the n50 and the joint length of the opening part of the windows and doors was examined.