Empirical Modeling of Air Tightness in Residential Homes in North Louisiana

Abstract

The measure of air-tightness in residential homes quantifies air leakage sites by measuring the airflow between the home and the outside in a range of pressures. Estimating air-tightness on the basis of certain physical characteristics of the home instead of actually measuring it is advantageous to homeowners as well as energy auditors. The objective of this study is to develop a region-specific empirical model to estimate air-tightness in residential homes. The air-tightness was measured for sixty-six homes in northern parts of Louisiana, USA. The three common air-tightness measures – CFM50, ELA, EqLA are used to develop three different multiple regression models based on the year of construction, floor area, number of bedrooms, and number of storeys of the homes. The predictive power for the three different models is also calculated. This case study is accessible to readers with a basic knowledge of statistics.