Air leakage through the building envelopes is responsible for a large amount of energy use. The
\nUS Department of Energy Windows and Building Envelope Research and Development Roadmap for
\nEmerging Technologies states that, in 2010, air infiltration was responsible for 20% of primary energy
\nconsumption attributable to the fenestration and building envelopes of commercial buildings. Despite this
\nfact, improving airtightness is not always recognized by commercial building owners, as they have been
\nslow in acknowledging and diminishing the detrimental effects of air leakage on energy use, comfort,
\nindoor air quality, and building material durability.
\nThe design and construction industry would benefit from a credible, easy-to-use tool that estimates
\npotential energy and financial savings in a standardized manner so designers and contractors can give
\nbuilding owners compelling reasons to invest in reducing air leakage. In 2016\u20132017, Oak Ridge National
\nLaboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Air Barrier Association of America,
\nand the US-China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency collaborated to develop
\nan online calculator. This user-friendly calculator is free to the public and uses the simulation results of
\nthe whole building energy simulation tool EnergyPlus and the airflow simulation tool CONTAM. In 2018\u2013
\n2019, the calculator was expanded to add moisture transfer calculations given that air leakage through the
\nbuilding envelope can have a significant impact on moisture transfer and associated impacts. Four more
\ncommercial building types were also added to the existing database of three building types as part of this
\nupdate. This paper describes the procedure used to calculate moisture transfer due to air leakage and
\nprovides examples that demonstrate the moisture transfer for each of the seven commercial building types
\nthat are currently part of the calculator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"