Effect of Air Infiltration Rate on Energy Consumption of a Residential Building in Bebena, Thimphu

Abstract

Energy consumption in buildings has been a major concern in the present construction field and the parameters that affect its performance should be carefully studied. Building airtightness is an important contributing factor to the energy consumption of a building. The measurement of air infiltration is widely practiced in some countries of Europe and North America. However, this practice is still rare and uncommon in Bhutan. At present, traditional dwellings of Bhutan have been found to be very leaky as compared to the modern Reinforced concrete structure (RCC) buildings mainly due to construction materials and techniques. The paper consists of air infiltration test carried out by the blower door method at a residential building in Bebena, Thimphu. The test has been followed by a series of data collection and interpretation of the readings obtained on site. The result obtained was air movement of 11.9-h through the building envelope which was satisfactory as in the case of Bhutan but was found to be exceeding the international standard of 3.0-h in accordance to ISO 9972:2015. The average air movement of residential buildings in Bhutan is 11.7-h according to the energy baseline report.