Measurement of infiltration rates of apartments in Ahmedabad
Building envelope plays a crucial role in limiting the heat gains and directly affects the energy requirement for space cooling. Houses are increasingly moving towards air -conditioning for comfort requirements and limiting heat gains is one of the ways in reducing the energy demand. Infiltration/exfiltration, i.e., air entering/leaving the building envelope through unintended cracks or openings also contributes to increasing the cooling energy requirement of a building. Infiltration/exfiltration depends on the building envelope characteristics and the changes in outdoor conditions. The objective of this research is to estimate the heat gains due to infiltration by measuring the air change rate or air changes per hour (ACH) for a building. Blower door experiments will be carried out to measure the air change rates of 50 apartments in Ahmedabad. The apartments will be randomly selected for carrying out the blower door test. Envelope characteristics such as apartment dimensions, type of fenestration, exposed area, floor area, etc. will be noted. The study will help to identify the range of air change rates and their relationship with the building characteristics. This will also help us to input data of air change rates required for carrying out energy simulation of buildings.
