Investigation of The Impact of Commercial Building Envelope Air tightness on HVAC Energy Use

Course Summary

This course presents a simulation study of the energy impact of improving envelope air tightness in U.S. commercial buildings. Despite common assumptions, measurements have shown that typical U.S. commercial buildings are not particularly airtight. Past simulation studies have shown that commercial building envelope leakage can result in significant heating and cooling loads. To evaluate the potential energy savings of an effective air barrier requirement, annual energy simulations were prepared for three nonresidential buildings (a two-story office building, a one-story retail building, and a four-story apartment building).

Learning Objectives

• Introduction
• Analysis Method
• Building Descriptions
• Airflow Models
• System Models
• Scalar Calculation

Course Author

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Building Technologies

Review the quiz before studying the course.

Certificate of completion of the course

This course comes with a multiple-choice quiz. You can view the quiz and take the quiz if you are logged in your account. You can take the quiz for this online PDH course as many times until passed. The passing grade is 70% and above. After you pass the quiz simply follow the page, to pay for the course and print your certificate instantly. A copy of the certificate and receipt for this course will always be in your account.

Acrobat Reader is required to view this document. Click here to download a free copy of Acrobat Reader.