Modeled infiltration rate distributions for U.S. housing

A set of 209 dwellings that represent 80% of U.S. housing stock is used to generate frequency distributions of residential infiltration rates. The set of homes is based on an analysis of the 1997 U.S. Department of Energy's Residential Energy Consumption Survey, which documents numerous housing characteristics including type, floor area, number of rooms, type of heating system, foundation type, and year of construction. The infiltration rate distributions are developed using the multizone network airflow model, CONTAM (CONTAMW 2.4 User Guide and Program Documentation, NISTIR 7251. National Institute of Standards and Technology.). In this work, 19 cities are selected to represent U.S. climatic conditions, and CONTAM simulations are performed for each of the 209 houses in these cities to calculate building air change rates for each hour over a year. Frequency distributions are then developed and presented nationally as well as based on house type and region.

These distributions will support indoor air quality, exposure, and energy analyses based on a truly representative collection of U.S. homes, which has previously not been possible. In addition, the methodology employed can be extended to other countries and other collections of buildings. For U.S.-specific analyses, these homes and their models, can be extended to include occupants, contaminant sources, and other building features to allow a wide range of studies to address other ventilation and indoor air quality issues.