November 2016 Monthly Meeting

Air tightness testing is becoming more prominent in building codes across the country with an ever increasing focus on energy conservation and indoor air quality control. This presentation focuses on how to select and perform building airtightness tests. During design, properly specifying an air tightness test requires the design team to be able to identify the air, thermal and vapor control layers throughout the building to determine the building enclosure and understand the various air tightness tests available. In construction, the design and construction teams require an understanding of what needs to be included in the tests to avoid pitfalls, how to set up buildings for qualitative and quantitative testing, and how to interpret the results if the team is testing to a standard, pre/post retrofit comparisons, or comparing the results to other buildings.

Terry is a building scientist and educator. He is on the editorial boards of Environmental Building News and Heating Piping and Air Conditioning Magazine. He currently chairs the U.S.A.C.E committee developing new air leakage protocols. Past work includes consulting on a research project to restore three homes in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, teaching healthy housing courses for the National Center for Healthy Housing and working on a research project to study unplanned airflows in commercial buildings in New York State. He is a member of ASHRAE 62.2 Ventilation and Air Quality Committee and served as consultant to the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Dampness and Health in Buildings. He holds a Bachelors degree in Physics and a Masters degree in Environmental Studies.