Quantifying airtightness in Brazilian residential buildings with focus on its contribution to thermal comfort

Rodrigues, Lucelia; Tubelo, Renata; Vega Pasos, Alan; Gon�alves, Joana Carla Soares; Wood, Christopher; Gillott, Mark

Abstract

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Airtightness refers to the amount of air leakage through a building’s envelope. This uncontrolled exchange of air between inside and outside, either infiltration or exfiltration, may lead to thermal discomfort. Nevertheless, little or no attention has been given to airtightness in some countries including Brazil. In Brazil, a range of different strategies are suitable to achieve thermal comfort depending on the several climatic regions. In those regions where winter conditions are noticeable, such as in São Paulo, airtightness is a key parameter, but it has been historically overlooked. In this work, the authors deployed the innovative Pulse test methodology to determine airtightness levels for the first time in Brazil, in the city of São Paulo. Three representative multifamily residential buildings dating from the 1970s, 1980s and 2000s were measured, and the results’ values widely ranged from 1 to 5.7 h−1, at 4 Pa. Next, dynamic building simulations were conducted using measured and representative airtightness values (converted to infiltration) to understand the contribution of this variable on the thermal comfort. The results suggested that up to 9% improvement in the thermal comfort levels could be achieved by adopting 1 h−1 as maximum infiltration, and up to 14% by adopting 0.5 h−1.

Citation

Rodrigues, L., Tubelo, R., Vega Pasos, A., Gonçalves, J. C. S., Wood, C., & Gillott, M. (2020). Quantifying airtightness in Brazilian residential buildings with focus on its contribution to thermal comfort. Building Research and Information, https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2020.1825064

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 14, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Oct 3, 2020
• Publication Date: Oct 3, 2020
• Deposit Date: Oct 6, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 4, 2021
• Journal: Building Research and Information
• Print ISSN: 0961-3218
• Electronic ISSN: 1466-4321
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2020.1825064
• Keywords: Airtightness, infiltration, Pulse test, thermal comfort, multifamily residential buildings
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4939656
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09613218.2020.1825064
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Building Research & Information on 03/10/2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09613218.2020.1825064