TightVent Europe is a platform focused on

building A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, a ...

and

ductwork Ducts are conduits or passages used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) to deliver and remove air. The needed airflows include, for example, ''supply air'', ''return air'', and ''exhaust air''. Ducts commonly also deliver '' ve ...

airtightness issues.BUILD UP energy solutions for better buildings,
Launching of TightVent Europe - the Building and Ductwork Airtightness platform
, 2011 The platform's creation was triggered to meet the 2020 targets of the

Directive on the energy performance of buildings The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2024/1275), the "EPBD") is the European Union's main legislative instrument aiming to promote the improvement of the energy performance of buildings within the European Union. It was inspired by the K ...

and overcome the challenges related to envelope and ductwork leakage towards the generalization of nearly

zero-energy building A Zero-Energy Building (ZEB), also known as a Net Zero-Energy (NZE) building, is a building with net zero energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy c ...

s.BUILD UP energy solutions for better buildings:
TightVent Newsletter 1
, May, 2011 The platform's main activities include producing and disseminating policy-oriented publications, networking among local or national airtightness associations, and organizing conferences, workshops and webinars.P. Wouters, F. R. Carrie:
Airtightness of buildings and ductwork: The TightVent Europe platform

BUILDAIR Symposium
2011

History

TightVent Europe was launched and initiated in January 2011 by INIVE (International Network for Information on Ventilation and Energy Performance), a registered whose members include building research centers in Europe.TightVent Europe:
More about TightVent Europe
, 2011 Since then, the platform has received the financial and/or technical support from its partners: ACIN Instruments, BCCA, BlowerDoor GmbH, Buildings Performance Institute Europe, dooApp, Eurima, Industrias Gonal, Lindab, MEZ-TECHNIK, Retrotec,

Soudal Soudal is a Belgian company whose headquarters is located in Turnhout (Belgium). The company has developed into one of the most important independent producers of silicone and caulks (silicone, polyurethane, marine sealants, acrylics), polyuret ...

and SIGA.

TightVent Airtightness Associations Committee-TAAC

In September 2012, TightVent Europe launched the TightVent Airtightness Associations Committee (TightVent TAAC committee) with the primary goal to promote reliable testing and reporting procedures.BUILD UP energy solutions for better buildings:
TightVent Newsletter 3
, September, 2012BUILD UP energy solutions for better buildings:
TightVent Newsletter 4
, March, 2013TightVent Europe:
TightVent Airtightness Associations Committee – TAAC
, 2013 At present, the participants are from Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA. The scope of this committee includes various aspects such as: * airtightness and ventilation inspection requirements in the countries involved * competent tester/inspectors schemes in the countries involved * applicable standards and guidelines for testing/inspecting * collection of relevant guidance and training documents * knowledge and experience sharing during the meetings * providing information on ongoing research work in the building and ductwork airtightness and ventilation inspection fields

Publications

Since 2011, TightVent Europe has published 6 reports in the fields of building and ductwork airtightness. The first publication on the challenges for building and ductwork airtightness was released in 2011 entitled as: “Critical steps for a wide scale implementation of building and ductwork airtightness”. It included an introductory paper browsing the issues of concern and collect a series of technical documents, namely those produced within the ASIEPI project as well as within the SAVE-DUCT and AIRWAYS projects. Another publication: “Methods and techniques for airtight buildings” was released in 2012, with an overview to the design principles and construction methods for building airtightness. Moreover, the publication: "Building air leakage databases in energy conservation policies: Analysis of selected initiatives in 4 European countries and the USA" was also released in 2012 with information on existing envelope air leakage databases from five countries: Czech Republic, France, Germany, UK and USA. Furthermore, another report was produced in close collaboration with the AIVC, "Building airtightness: a critical review of testing reporting and quality schemes in 10 countries", in 2012; a review of testing and reporting about building airtightness and quality management issues for achieving a good airtightness in 10 countries .In 2013, TightVent Europe published "Building and ductwork airtightness: Selected papers from the REHVA special journal issue on ‘airtightness’" composed of relevant contributions from the special issue on airtightness of the REHVA journal.Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations - REHVA:
Special Issue on airtightness
, Volume: 50, Issue: 1, January 2013

TightVent Europe publishes a biannual newsletter with up to date information on developments in respect to building and ductwork airtightness, including policy issues, publications, events, innovative technologies, case studies and research activities.

References

{{Reflist Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning Ventilation Energy conservation Low-energy building