Influence of Air-tightness on Heat Energy Performance in Post and Beam Building with Exposed Wood Frame

Han-green building is one of the modernized Korean traditional buildings developed by Korea Forest Research Institute. This building was developed to increase the competitiveness of Korean traditional building using state-of-art technologies; hence Han-green building has the inherent characteristics of traditional building such as exposed wood frame in wall. Because of discontinuity in wall by the exposed wood frame, there is a concern on heat-air leaking in terms of energy performance. In this study, air-tightness of Han-green building was evaluated to investigate the influence of gaps between frames and in-fill walls. Blower door test was carried out to evaluate the air-tightness, and air-change rate (ACH50) was evaluated by averaging four set of pressurization and depressurization test. The air-change rate of Han-green house was 5.91 $h^{-1}$. To improve energy performance of Han-green house, thermal infrared images of Han-green house were taken in winter with heating to find out where the heat loss occurred. It was found that the building lost more heat through gaps between frames and in-fill walls rather than through other parts of this building. After covering all the gaps by taping, the blower door test was performed again, and the air-change rate was improved to 5.25 $h^{-1}$. From this analysis, it was concluded that the heated air can leak through the gaps between frames and walls. Therefore, when one designs the post and beam building with exposed frame, the detail design between frame and wall needs to be carefully dealt. However, Han-green building showed relatively high air-tightness comparing with other country research results.