What is the equivalent area of an Air-Tightness Test Result?

Q. In real terms, what is the equivalent area of an Air-Tightness Test Result of 7 m3/(hr.m2)?
A. It would be in effect be like having a hole the size of an A4 page in the external wall of a new house ( = cold air in / warm air out). & costing people money.
We attended the ‘BUILD BETTER’ Conference for Residential Compliance & Meeting nZEB in #Waterford on Tuesday.

Hosted by Saint Gobain, Gyproc, Isover & Weber, providing skills, information + discussion with presentation from Jason Horex Saint Gobain, Niall Vaughan CLV, Brian Dempsey WIT + Conor Taaffe Homebond, on:

– Fire Safety for Dwellings (Building Regulation update),
– Sound + Dwelling Acoustics,
– nZEB (near zero energy buildings) + Thermal Bridging,
– Air Tightness,
– Masonry + Rendering.

AIR TIGHTNESS + AIR PERMEABILITY:
– Equivalent area of an Air-Tightness Test Result of 7 m3/(hr.m2) = A4 page size approx. (2011 Building Regulations maximum result)
– Equivalent area of an Air-Tightness Test Result of 5 m3/(hr.m2) = A4 page x 70% size approx. (2019 Building Regulations maximum result)
– Equivalent area of an Air-Tightness Test Result of 3 m3/(hr.m2) = A4 page x 40% size approx. (2019 Building Regulations max. result with MHRV)
– Equivalent area of an Air-Tightness Test Result of 0.6 m3/(hr.m2) = A4 x 9% page size approx. (Passive House Standard)

Overall very informative + a good morning of learning at the Tower Hotel….

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