Field Trial of an Aerosol-Based Enclosure Sealing Technology

Harrington, Curtis¹  Springer, David¹ 

[1] Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)

关键词: residential;    Residential Buildings;    ARBI;    Building America;    HVAC;    UC Davis;    enclosure sealing rate;    aerosol sealing;    ZERH;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1225327
RP-ID  :  NREL/SR--5500-64740
RP-ID  :  DOE/GO--102015-4728
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1225327

学科分类：能源（综合）

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

This report presents the results from several demonstrations of a new method for sealing building envelope air leaks using an aerosol sealing process developed by the Western Cooling Efficiency Center at UC Davis. The process involves pressurizing a building while applying an aerosol sealant to the interior. As air escapes through leaks in the building envelope, the aerosol particles are transported to the leaks where they collect and form a seal that blocks the leak. Standard blower door technology is used to facilitate the building pressurization, which allows the installer to track the sealing progress during the installation and automatically verify the final building tightness. Each aerosol envelope sealing installation was performed after drywall was installed and taped, and the process did not appear to interrupt the construction schedule or interfere with other trades working in the homes. The labor needed to physically seal bulk air leaks in typical construction will not be replaced by this technology. However, this technology is capable of bringing the air leakage of a building that was built with standard construction techniques and HERS-verified sealing down to levels that would meet DOE Zero Energy Ready Homes program requirements. When a developer is striving to meet a tighter envelope leakage specification, this technology could greatly reduce the cost to achieve that goal by providing a simple and relatively low cost method for reducing the air leakage of a building envelope with little to no change in their common building practices.