Effect of House Depressurization on the Operation of Gas Appliances. TopicalReport, June 1992-June 1994

摘要

Gas fired appliances have been used safely in residences for many years. Howeverthe design and construction of the buildings themselves in changing in response to rising energy cost and regulatory actions. By building 'tighter' homes, more depressurization results from a given air change rate. Therefore flue gas spillage from gas appliances caused by depressurization is a concern. No quantitative way of directly measuring the amount of spillage previously existed. A method of quantifying spillage was conceived and implemented. The method consists of injecting a tracer gas (SF6) into the flue products and measuring the amount of tracer gas in the building. A research house was set up to allow simultaneous control of the depressurization level and air change rate. Different combination of common residential appliances were then tested under depressurized conditions. The effectiveness of different remedies preventing backdrafting and combustion product spillage was also quantitatively evaluated.