Validation of EnergyPlus infiltration models for a case study in a high-rise residential building

Abstract

There is a lack of studies on air leakage for buildings higher than 3 stories, and the infiltration models of EnergyPlus (FlowCoefficient and EffectiveLeakageArea) were developed for low-rise residential buildings. This study aims to verify if these models are reliable for estimating the dynamic infiltration in an attic in a 7-story building. Tracer gas and blower door tests were carried out to find the ad-hoc coefficients of the models and to allow their empirical evaluation according to ASTM D5157 criteria in three different periods. Models with only in situ coefficients met the standard over all time periods, demonstrating accurate performance, consistency, and reliability in both equations. For the best model generated with tracer gas data, the R2 and NMSE values are equal to 0.94 and 0.019. The model created with blower door test data and EnergyPlus default values presented 64% less accuracy than the best one, which could deliver misleading energy estimates. The results can help EnergyPlus users gain insight into these models’ performance in a high-rise building to improve their implementation decision in building energy simulations.