TY - GEN
T1 - Online airtightness savings calculator for commercial buildings in the United States, Canada, and China
AU - Shrestha, Som
AU - Desjarlais, Andre
AU - Hun, Diana
AU - Emmerich, Steven
AU - Ng, Lisa
AU - Dalgleish, Laverne
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 U.S. Government.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The relative contribution of air leakage to heating and cooling loads has been increasing as the thermal resistance of commercial building envelopes continues to improve. Easy-to-access data are needed to convince building owners and contractors that enhancing the airtightness of new and existing buildings is the next logical step to achieve a high-performance building envelope. To this end, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Air Barrier Association of America, and the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency partnered to develop an online calculator that estimates the potential energy and cost savings in major U.S., Canadian, and Chinese cities from improvements in airtightness. This tool will have a user-friendly graphical interface that accesses a database of CONTAM and EnergyPlus pre-run simulation results and will be available to the public at no cost. Baseline leakage rates are either user specified or selected by the user from a list of supplied leakage rates. Users will then enter the expected airtightness after the installation of an air barrier system. Energy costs are estimated based on the building location and other user inputs. This paper provides an overview of the methodology implemented in this calculator as well as example results. The deployment of this calculator could influence construction practices, contributing to significant reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from the United States, Canada, and China.
AB - The relative contribution of air leakage to heating and cooling loads has been increasing as the thermal resistance of commercial building envelopes continues to improve. Easy-to-access data are needed to convince building owners and contractors that enhancing the airtightness of new and existing buildings is the next logical step to achieve a high-performance building envelope. To this end, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Air Barrier Association of America, and the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency partnered to develop an online calculator that estimates the potential energy and cost savings in major U.S., Canadian, and Chinese cities from improvements in airtightness. This tool will have a user-friendly graphical interface that accesses a database of CONTAM and EnergyPlus pre-run simulation results and will be available to the public at no cost. Baseline leakage rates are either user specified or selected by the user from a list of supplied leakage rates. Users will then enter the expected airtightness after the installation of an air barrier system. Energy costs are estimated based on the building location and other user inputs. This paper provides an overview of the methodology implemented in this calculator as well as example results. The deployment of this calculator could influence construction practices, contributing to significant reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from the United States, Canada, and China.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053684742&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85053684742
SN - 9781939200501
T3 - Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings
SP - 152
EP - 160
BT - Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings - XIII International Conference
PB - American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
T2 - 13th International Conference on Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings 2016
Y2 - 4 December 2016 through 8 December 2016
ER -
