Analysis of U.S Commercial Building Envelope Air Leakage Database to Support Sustainable Building Design

Published

March 26, 2014

Author(s)

Steven J. Emmerich, Andrew K. Persily

Abstract

In 1998, NIST published a review of commercial and institutional building airtightness data that found significant levels of air leakage and debunked the myth of the airtight commercial building (Persily 1998). Since then, NIST has expanded and maintained a database of whole building envelope leakage measurements of U.S. commercial and institutional buildings. In addition to building leakage values collected from research publications, low-energy building programs and private pressurization testing firms, the database includes basic building characteristics such as year built, building type, floor area, number of stories, location, and wall construction type for many of the buildings. The purposes of the database are to support the design and construction of low-energy buildings, to establish default values for building simulation, to estimate the energy savings potential of airtightness requirements in standards and codes, and to identify opportunities for additional improvements in building airtightness performance.

Citation

The International Journal of Ventilation

Volume

12

Issue

4

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Airtightness, air barrier, fan pressurization test, infiltration, sustainable buildings

Citation

Emmerich, S. and Persily, A. (2014), Analysis of U.S Commercial Building Envelope Air Leakage Database to Support Sustainable Building Design, The International Journal of Ventilation, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=914293 (Accessed April 24, 2026)

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