Airtightness Analysis of the Built Heritage–Field Measurements of Nineteenth Century Buildings through Blower Door Tests

Abstract

Airtightness is a major issue in architectural design and it has a significant impact on the energy performance of buildings. Moreover, the energy behaviour of built heritage is due, to its singular characteristics, still a great unknown. The aim of this study is to establish a better knowledge of the airtightness of historical buildings, based on an in depth field study using blower-door tests. A set of 37 enclosures were analyzed inside eight buildings located in historical areas of a Spanish city with a significant built heritage. They were constructed between 1882 and 1919 and include diverse construction typologies applied for many building uses such as residential, cultural, educational, administrative and emblematic. The results indicate lower values compared to other previous airtightness studies of historical buildings. The average air change rate was found to be n50 = 9.03 h−1 and the airtightness of the enclosures presented a wide range of between 0.68 and 37.12 h−1. Three main levels of airtightness were identified with two thirds of the tested samples belonging to the intermediate level between 3–20 h−1. To conclude, several correlations have been developed which provide a method to estimate air leakage and could serve as a basis for energy performance studies of these kinds of building.