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Author
Persily, A. K. | Crum, E. C. | Nabinger, S. J. | Lubliner, M.
Title
Ventilation Characterization of a New Manufactured House.
Coporate
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Book or Conf
Ventilation, Humidity Control and Energy Proceedings. Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC) Conference and Building Environment and Thermal Envelope Council (BETEC) Conference, 24th. Proceedings. (International Energy Agency (IEA) Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Program. Annex V: Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre.) October 14, 2003, Washington, DC, 295-300 p., 2003
Keywords
housing | ventilation | manufactured housing | mechanical ventilation | residential buildings | instruments | indoor air quality
Identifiers
building tightness measurements; air change rate measurements and predictions; CONTAM model leakage values
Abstract
A new, double-wide manufactured home has been installed on the NIST campus for ventilation, energy and indoor air quality studies. The primary purposes of the facility are to study the mechanical ventilation requirements for manufactured homes in the U.S. and to investigate the systems used to meet these requirements. In addition, the building will be used to investigate moisture in buildings, indoor air quality impacts of combustion appliances and VOC emissions from building materials and furnishings. The first phase of this multiyear research program has focused on, airtightness, ventilation system airflows and building air change rates. This paper describes the measurement results including envelope and duct airtightness, ventilation system airflow rates, and whole house air change rates under different ventilation configurations and weather conditions are also described. In addition, a model of the building in the multizone airflow program CONTAMW is presented along with comparisons between model predictions and measurements of air change rates and building and system pressures. The results indicate that the envelope and air distribution ductwork are fairly leaky, but not unusually high for typical U.S. manufactured homes. In addition, the airflow rates of the local exhaust fans (bath and kitchen) are significantly below the HUD requirements. Finally, the air change rates predicted with CONTAMW are in generally good agreement with the measured values.