European airtightness association committee Internet Meeting 26/09/12

Participants Belgium: Xavier Loncour, Clarisse Mees (Observers) Czech Republic: Jiri Novak (Asociace Blower Door CZ” (A.BD.CZ)) Denmark: Walter Sebastian (Klimaskaerm) - Apologies France: Rémi Pelini (Syneole) - Apologies Germany: Oliver Solcher (FliB) Italy: Guenther Gantioler (ATTA) – No answer ? Sweden: Eva Sikander (Informal network in Sweden) UK: Rob Coxon, David Unwin, Tom Jones (ATTMA) TightVent: Peter Wouters, Rémi Carrié, Maria Kapsalaki

Agenda Review of previous action list Information within committee – Latest documents available on website (contact list, review of applicable standards, summary of airtightness requirements) Publication of AIVC-TightVent reports on air leakage databases and summary of March workshop Feedback on Copenhagen conference Information on ISO TC 163 / SC 1 / WG 10 work Status on actions on airtightness measurements accuracy and precision / calibration Discussion on questionnaire on competent tester schemes Events (conferences, workshops and webinars) AOB Next meetings

New action list

Previous action list

Information within committee Latest documents available on private area of TightVent website – associations – Password is TVAAC2012, please do not disclose it. Now includes contact list, review of applicable standards, summary of airtightness requirements

Contact list

Summary of requirements

Review of standards

Publications

Feedback on Copenhagen conference Over 160 particpants Over 100 presentations Summary of airtightness track will be published in January issue of the REHVA journal and on AIVC and TightVent websites Good feedback Number of total responses=67 Q4. Overall did the conference meet your expectations?

Information on ISO TC 163 / SC 1 / WG 10 Mail from Oliver Standards in the pipeline – ISO 9972 « Thermal performance of buildings – determination of air permeability of buildings – Fan pressurization method »: CD to be submitted as DIS (Draft International Standard). – ISO « Thermal performance of buildings – Determination of air change in buildings – Tracer gas dilution method ». FDIS was in enquiry until 16/10/2012. – ISO : « Thermal performance in the built environment – Determination of air permeance of materials ». Canada wanted to include modifications to draft document. Was foreseen to send it as FDIS for enquiry by the end of the year. – ISO : « Thermal performance in the built environment – Determination of Air flow Rate in Building applications by Field Measuring Methods ». First draft (CD) available but there are already 2 CEN standards dealing with the same subject. Draft to be revised to be consistent with CEN standard as much as possible. Also, the group wants to work on 2 additional subjects: – Measurement of ductwork airtightness – Measurement of the airtightness of large buildings NOTE: ATTMA notes that what makes a large building difficult to test is its height and/or partitions, not necessarily its size

Status on actions on airtightness measurements accuracy and precision / calibration Can be an endless work Need to better characterize the scope of the work WebEx was planned with TightVent partners end of 2012 but had to be cancelled => Status idle

Questionnaire on competent tester scheme To be finalized by Jan 18 To be filled in by meeting attendees by Jan 31

Discussion on reference value used for airtightness indicator Xavier Loncour suggests to conduct a comparison exercise on the same building(s) to see to what extent different interpretations of the reference values can affect the indicator However, it is unclear whether this is an international exercise since we know there is significant discrepancy in the values obtained by technicians in the same country (e.g., on volumes, cold surface areas, etc.)

Discussion on reference value used for airtightness indicator The uncertainty on the reference value has a direct impact on the uncertainty on the airtightness indicator – 10% error on volume implies 10% error on n50 value – This may be important for compliance to a given limit value of the airtightness indicator On the other hand, this uncertainty can be eliminated in the energy calculation since the energy calculation uses the total leakage flowrate For example, assume energy use is calculated from the calculated infiltration rate and degree-days where Einf is expressed in kWh, Vbld is the building’s volume, and DD is the number of degree-days in Kelvin days And assume ninf can be estimated with

Discussion on reference value used for airtightness indicator Equation becomes And therefore the building volume has no influence on the calculation of the energy use as long as you use the same value for calculating the n50 as the one you use in the EP calculation. The same conclusion can be drawn if the indicator is normalized with the cold area. In sum, – The uncertainty on the reference value to normalize the airtightness indicator affects directly the uncertainty on the airtightness indicator – But, as long as you use the same reference value to normalize the airtightness as the one which is used in the EP calculation, there should be no impact on the energy calculation.

Events Quality of ventilation systems in Brussels – March 2013 Airtightness workshop in Washington DC – April 2013 BUILDAIR symposium in Hannover – 7-8 June 2013 AIVC-TightVent 2013 conference in Athens – September 2013

AOB

Next meetings Internet meeting – Thursday 7 March 2013, 10:00-12:00 (WebEx) Physical meeting – At BUILDAIR symposium? Tentative date: Thursday June in Hannover – Starting at 10:00? Or 09:00?