IMPACT OF AIR LEAKAGE THROUGH RECESSED LIGHTING FIXTURES ON THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS - A CASE STUDY

Actual energy performance of buildings depends on not only the design criteria but also on the construction quality of buildings. Design assumptions can be invalidated by construction quality issues, and lead to large variations between the designed performance and the actual performance. But very limited quantitative study is found on evaluating the impact of construction quality issues on building energy performance. In this paper a case study is presented utilizing 3D computational fluid dynamics to simulate air leakage issues in recessed lighting using different boundary conditions. The results of the case study suggest that some seemingly insignificant construction quality issue can cause significant increase in energy consumption of residential buildings. The paper provides scientific evidence to help residential construction industry to improve the construction quality of residential buildings in the United States.