HO-82-16-1 -- A Predictive Air Infiltration Model--Long-Term Field Test Validation PDF

Researchers at a national, laboratory have developed a model that can be used to predict the air infiltration rate of a residential structure. This model uses wind speed and outdoor temperature data, along with selected building and site parameters, to predict either hour-by-hour or long-term average infiltration.

Until now, the validity of the model has been tested through short-term survey measurements in occupied houses. Although the correlations of predicted and measured infiltration have been good, tests in occupied houses are necessarily restricted in terms of the time spent at any given house and the control of the model parameters for each building and site. This report presents long-term field validation results obtained by means of a portable test structure, the Mobile Infiltration Test Unit. In addition, long-term data from three unoccupied test houses at another research center are used to compare model predictions with measured infiltration data.