Six houses were simulated: they ranged in complexity from cottage to split-levels and from an electrically heated house, to forced air system with heat recovery. To simulate these houses, the air leakage characteristics of the house/garage interface were needed: it was determined by fan depressurisation tests. For validation purposes, the pressure drop between the garage and house was also measured. The fan depressurisation tests only provided information about the global leakage characteristics of the house, garage and the house/garage interface and do not provide any information about the distribution of cracks and gaps on the exterior walls/roof. This information is very essential for accurate prediction. A procedure was developed in this study to evaluate the leakage distribution using the existing data. CONTAM was used to simulate each house considering the house as a multi-zone compartment. The pressure drop between the house and garage predicted by CONTAM was compared with the measurements. Generally, excellent agreement between the predicted and measured pressure drop between the house and garage was obtained, with a significant proportion of the results being well within acceptable range. The results were extremely encouraging and illustrated the ample potential of multi-zone airflow models for airflow and for contaminant dispersion analysis in buildings. The minor discrepancies are due to some inconsistencies/ inaccuracies in the provided input data (site air temperature, building orientation, airflow rate, mechanical system frequency, etc.).
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