The impact of infiltration and ventilation flows on energy use in commercial buildings has received limited attention. One of the reasons for this lack of study is that the commonly used programs for estimating the energy use of buildings do not incorporate the interzonal airflow modeling techniques required to adequately account for the effect of these factors on energy usage. To address this issue and provide insight into the impact of these flows, the CONTAM airflow modeling tool was incorporated into the TRNSYS energy analysis program. This integrated approach was then used to estimate the energy usage of 25 buildings representing the U.S. core office building stock over a range of infiltration and ventilation conditions. This paper will discuss the process of modeling the buildings in both programs, the integration of the two programs into a cohesive simulation, and some initial results of the study.

Units: Dual