A New Method to Assess the Infiltration Rate in Large Commercial Complex in Beijing, China

AbstractIn China, large commercial complex is a new type of building with complicated type of business and high energy consumption. The energy performance of building significantly depends on the ventilation, which is affected by air infiltration through the uncontrolled air leakage across the building envelope. It is important for improving the building energy performance and reducing the air conditioning load to learn the infiltration rate in a commercial complex. Currently, the testing method of infiltration rate commonly used in some cases fails to measure the infiltration rate in a large commercial building continuously for a period of time. In this paper, a new method using the principle of mass balance relationship between indoor and outdoor particles was put forward. Then a field testing was conducted in a commercial complex in Beijing, China and the calculation result of infiltration rate based on the measurement data using the new method was verified according to airflow mass balance in the whole building. This method makes it easier to assess the infiltration rate in a large commercial complex and learn the change of infiltration rate in a period time. It can also help find out the main sources of indoor particle and improve the indoor air quality