Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Current building codes are aiming for performance based buildings and as a consequence, necessitates and airbarrier system. The trend is to make new homes more air tight and evaluate them using a blower door test.Establishing air tightness of buildings can reduce energy consumption due to air leakage, decrease problemsassociated with moisture, as well as minimize drafts and indoor air pollution. A blower door is a powerful fanthat mounts into the frame of an exterior door to determine the air infiltration rate of a building. Blower doorsconsist of a frame and flexible panel that fit in a doorway, a variable-speed fan, a pressure gauge to measure thepressure differences inside and outside the home, and an airflow manometer and hoses for measuring airflow.Current Ontario building codes don't address the retrofitting of homes, other than requiring the energyperformance after a renovation should be at least equal to energy performance prior to the renovation. A majorreason for the lack of data is that it is difficult to get two home owners sharing a common wall to agree to asimultaneous air leakage test. Students from the Humber Sustainable Energy and Building Technologyprogram, working with SEBT faculty Kerry Johnston and Dr. Dragos Paraschiv, under the direction of industrypartner Greg Labbé, to perform common wall air leakage tests in two areas of Toronto where the archetypehouse is most common: Riverdale and the Junction neighbourhoods. The data to be collected will identify thepotential for energy savings in semi-detached and townhomes in Toronto, and will provide the industry partnerwith valuable results to identify areas of energy savings in older Toronto homes. Currently, there is a lack ofresearch being done on this archetype of house, yet these houses are increasingly being marginalized by everincreasing energy performance of new houses. The area of retrofitting aging homes is a huge future marketboth in the GTA and across Canada as government policies are developed to help homeowners become moreenergy efficient. The skills to be learned by the students and the research team will help Humber grads and ourindustry partners lead the retrofitting market across Canada.