Upgrading existing dwelling for air tightness

Duffy, Christopher (2014) Upgrading existing dwelling for air tightness. Bachelors thesis, Dundalk Institute of Technology.

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Abstract

The decision to write a dissertation on air tightness came from the authors experiences from living and working in both “draughty” and “airtight” houses. After living in a house that recently had been upgraded in terms of thermal insulation, it was still difficult to heat due to the amount of cold air seeping in through the buildings envelope. Also after working in houses that where advertised as “airtight” and seeing at firsthand how they were constructed and finished, the importance of air tightness in dwellings and how existing dwellings could be upgraded, came into question. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the affects of air leakage in dwellings and how it can be reduced in existing dwellings. This paper also demonstrates the difficulties in upgrading existing dwellings for air tightness. This paper concludes that there are very few examples of upgrading dwellings specifically for air tightness. It is usually carried out when upgrading the thermal insulation in a dwelling which makes it more cost effective. It also found that upgrading existing dwellings to a high standard of air tightness can be relatively simple by using the same methods as new builds. However it requires significantly more labour input and hence costs are considerably higher.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelors)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Building structures; Airtight buildings.
Subjects:	Engineering
Research Centres:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Sean McGreal
Date Deposited:	31 Jul 2015 09:05
Last Modified:	31 Jul 2015 09:05
URI:	https://eprints.dkit.ie/id/eprint/442

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