Abstract
Energy consumption in residential buildings is primarily driven by space conditioning applications. The primary energy use due to infiltration is more than 2.95 EJ (2.8 Quads), which is 29% of primary energy consumption attributable to building envelope components in residential buildings in US in 2010. There are advanced air barrier technologies and construction practices to reduce air leakage in buildings, which are currently available in the market. However, the lack of adequate information on their impact on energy consumption and the durability of buildings has caused the slow adoption of these technologies and construction practices. In the past, the authors developed an online calculator that estimates the potential energy and cost savings in major U.S., Canadian and Chinese cities from improvement in airtightness in commercial buildings. The calculator is being expanded by adding residential and additional commercial building data. In this paper, we present the impact of airtightness in residential buildings on site energy consumption and moisture transfer, using results in 52 major cities in the U.S. and 5 cities in Canada. By decreasing the air leakage rate of the building from 13 h-1 to 0.6 h-1 at 50 Pa (0.00 725 psi), the reduction in electricity consumption was up to 20% for climate zone 8 and the reduction in natural gas consumption for space heating was more than 40% for most of the climate zones. Results from this study show that air tightness is crucial for reducing energy consumption and moisture transfer in residential buildings.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings XV International Conference |
Publisher | American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers |
Pages | 130-139 |
Number of pages | 10 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781955516280 |
State | Published - 2022 |
Event | 15th International Conference on Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings 2022 - Clearwater Beach, United States Duration: Dec 5 2022 → Dec 8 2022 |
Publication series
Name | Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings |
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ISSN (Electronic) | 2166-8469 |
Conference
Conference | 15th International Conference on Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings 2022 |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Clearwater Beach |
Period | 12/5/22 → 12/8/22 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank the US Department of Energy and the ABAA for funding this research. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The authors acknowledge the support from and would like to thank Marc LaFrance at the US Department of Energy for his sponsorship, assistance, and technical discussions. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).