Air leakage characteristics of houses—a new approach

Abstract

Leakage measurements of houses are common practice in many countries, partly because they are needed for predicting ventilation rates. To use the measurements in this way it is usually necessary to fit an equation to the measured leakage data, so that the data can be extended into the region of interest. At present the well-known “power law” equation is generally chosen for the curve-fit. In the following, a new approach using a quadratic equation is considered. It is shown that there can be large differences between the two equations, so the choice of equation is important. By considering the house leakage as the sum of the leakages of the individual openings, it is concluded that the quadratic form of equation is preferable to the power law form.