Live webinar sponsored by the Air Barrier Association of America

A Web-Based Calculator to Estimate the Impact of Air Leakage on the Energy Performance and Moisture Control of Building Envelopes

Presented by Andre Desjarlais

Air leakage through the building envelopes is responsible for a large amount of energy use. The US Department of Energy Windows and Building Envelope Research and Development Roadmap for Emerging Technologies states that, in 2010, air infiltration was responsible for 20% of primary energy consumption attributable to the building envelopes of commercial buildings. In 2016–2017, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Air Barrier Association of America collaborated to develop an online calculator. This user-friendly calculator is free to the public and uses the simulation results of the whole building energy simulation tool EnergyPlus and the airflow simulation tool CONTAM. In 2018–2019, the calculator was expanded to add moisture transfer calculations given that air leakage through the building envelope can have a significant impact on moisture transfer and associated impacts. This presentation will describe the development of the tool, detail the procedures used to calculate energy loss and moisture transfer due to air leakage, and provides examples of the tool’s outputs.

Learning Objectives:

1. The significance air tightness plays in the overall energy efficiency of buildings;
2. How much money a building owner can save by requiring improved levels of air tightness for their buildings; and
3. What is the interaction between moisture and air leakage.

Live webinar airing on July 30, 2020 – 1:00 PM EST

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Andre Desjarlais

Program Manager, Oak Ridge National Laboratory – Building Envelope and Urban Systems Research Group

André Desjarlais is the Program Manager for the Building Envelope and Urban Systems Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  He has been involved in building envelope and materials research for over 45 years, first as a consultant and, for the last 30 years, at ORNL.  Areas of expertise include building envelope and material energy efficiency, moisture control, and durability.  Desjarlais has been a Member of ASTM since 1987.  He is the past Chairman of ASTM Committee C16 and was awarded the title of Fellow in 2011.  He has been a member of ASHRAE since 1991 and is past Chairman of TC 4.4.