WINCON Airtightness Quality Control Unit
Airtightness Testing Instrument
The introduction of Building Energy Ratings has highlighted the importance of ensuring our building stock performs as efficiently as possible with regards to energy use. As we insulate our buildings more and more, the effect heat losses due to infiltration and air leakages is substantially increased. Studies in the UK have shown that heat losses resulting from infiltration can account for up to 33% of heat losses from modern, well insulated buildings. Therefore airtightness has been highlighted as one of the key parameters in designing and constructing energy efficient buildings. One of the key parameters to achieving airtightness is the level of workmanship carried out on site on the building sites of Ireland. Improving the level of airtightness in our buildings will require a dramatic improvement in the level of workmanship and culture on site. This can only be achieved if defects at the construction stage can be highlighted as early as possible before a Blower Door airtightness measurement test is carried out when the construction is complete.
The pro clima WINCON is an exceptionally high performance airtightness testing device (9600m3/h at 50 Pa pressure differential). The WINCON provides the Irish construction industry with a simple, cost effective device, which can monitor the consistency of on site practices and the quality of the airtightness layer of any type of construction at any stage of the construction process. Its operation is based on a simple principle: the pro clima WINCON generates a negative pressure and thereby enables undesigned air leaks to be identified and sealed. The pro clima WINCON can be installed in an external window or door of the building.
The pro clima WINCON is an innovative device which consists of a high powered fan, a fan controller and a magnehelic pressure gauge, all mounted on one singular wooden frame. This device is packaged in a convenient, robust wooden box, complete with smoke puffers for detecting leakages in the building envelope, temporary sealing tapes and a checklist for areas of the building envelope requiring additional sealing. The magnehelic gauge allows the operator to depressurise the building to up to 60 Pascals. > The pro clima WINCON does not provide an exact measurement as to how airtight the building envelope is, but simply tests the airtightness of the sections of the building that have been built or the complete building, just like a plumber or gas engineer tests the water or gas-tightness of the pipes they have installed. This ensures that the builder or contractor can be confident of achieving a high level of airtightness prior to the final overall blower boor measurement.
It is also possible to perform the test using a blower door. However this has a lower fan power, takes more time to set-up, requires a higher level of expertise and is allot more expensive than the pro clima WINCON. Even if it isn't possible to test the airtightness of every building for practical reasons, occasional testing leads to a significant improvement in the quality of the work due to the educational effect of the tests that are carried out. This builds trust with the customer, improves workmanship, reduces refurbishment costs and leads to reduced CO2 emissions from our buildings as a result of increased levels of airtightness. Download further information
