Airtightness and Heat Energy Loss of Mid-Size Terraced Houses Built of Different Construction Materials

Abstract

The European Union has adopted legislation aimed to increase the use of renewable energy and improve the effectiveness of conventional-form energy use. Additional structure insulation helps to decrease heat energy loss. Airtightness of the building envelope (building airtightness) is an additional factor that determines comfortable and energy-saving living environment. The conformity of heat energy loss with the object’s design energy class is one of the mandatory indicators used in the obligatory building energy performance certification procedure. Optionally, the objects to be certified are the entire buildings or separate units (flats). There is an issue of concern whether a flat assessed as a separate housing unit would meet the requirements of design energy class depending on the location of the unit in the building. The study is aimed to determine the change in heat loss of end units in terraced houses (townhouses) as a result of various factors, leading to uneven airtightness of the building envelope. The non-destructive assessment of building airtightness was implemented through the combined use of methods, namely Blower Door Test (around 200 measurements) and Infrared Thermography. The hollow clay unit masonry showed ca. 7–11% less airtightness than the sand–lime block masonry structure. The end units were up to 20% less airtight compared to the inside units.

Thermal Loads Map and Overall Energy Analysis Depending on Low-Effort Parameters Change: A Commercial Building Case Study

“…The air infiltration also had a considerable effect on energy consumption and internal comfort, as demonstrated for several Canadian dwellings, and a model based on the machine learning approach has been proposed to support new building designs [10]. The same findings were discussed in [11], where the energy load for the heating season decreased with the increase in the airtightness, regardless of the wall composition. A combined energy-economic assessment of the airtightness was proposed in [12], demonstrating that the reduction in the infiltration rate through the external building envelope, glazing, and doors is both a valuable refurbishing path and a cost-effective measure.…”

Air infiltration and related building energy consumption: A case study of office buildings in Changsha, China

“…The reason behind 5# should be the large floor area. When all other factors remain the same, a positive correlation of airtightness with the floor area has been observed [30]. The N values of 2#, 4#, and 6# spaces are relatively high (namely, relatively poor airtightness).…”

“…The air infiltration through the building is affected by many factors. To establish a fast and accurate airtightness prediction model and to better evaluate the building airtightness, it is necessary to delve into these influencing factors, such as construction method [8], air-conditioning system [15], building height/number of floors [13,27], building area, building typology [15,28], year of construction [16,29], climate region [6], decoration/renovation [30,31], and process quality and maintenance [13,20]. In addition, Salehi [20] found that architectural attributes such as building geometry and the quality of interventions had a greater impact on infiltration and ventilation rate than building typology.…”

Comprehensive Analysis of Influencing Factors on Building Energy Performance and Strategic Insights for Sustainable Development: A Systematic Literature Review

“…For example, commercial areas such as restaurants or retail stores, or residential spaces such as luxury or flamboyant dwellings, are key factors affecting BEP levels. Intriguingly, whilst various studies have highlighted the influence of floor characteristics such as the floor area for commercial buildings [26,28,43], they did not unequivocally highlight the significance or importance of the floor usage for analyzing BEP. Nevertheless, it is noted that different building types (i.e., residential or commercial) ultimately have varying BEP levels [84].…”