Building Performance Testing Methods
"Building Performance Testing: Make It Simple, Change It." This is the first article in a series of articles that will focus on building performance testing. I'll discuss what building performance testing really means and how we can make it more effective in our businesses. After reading this article you should have a good idea of why performance testing should be done.
When we talk about building performance testing we are usually talking about two types of testing. The first is dry or wet measuring or the results obtained from wet measurements. Wet measurements are made with instruments such as humidity meters, hydrometers, and temperature probes. If a building has a large amount of water infiltration then we would consider it to be dry.
There are two main techniques used in building performance testing. The first is the infrared energy dispersive emission (IET) method. The second is the ultraviolet (UV) energy dispersive emission (UIE) technique. To measure systems with materials which do not emit heat or light, a third technique is needed. Diagnostic testing is often performed using these three methods to determine system functionality.
IET refers to the measurement of heat or fluorescence produced by the presence of a specific light source, while UIE refers to the measurement of the intensity of the UV light emitted by a specific material. The first technique we used for diagnostic testing was the use of laboratory tested gases. By placing containers inside of the gas chambers (a type of test chamber) and exposing the chambers to high levels of atmospheric oxygen, we could determine the color of the gas emitted by the porous materials. The gas emitted by porous materials such as marble, granite, marble grout, and wood is fluorescent. We called this fluorescent gas a "leak".
A newer form of diagnostic testing is the use of infrared emitting dyes. The method is similar to the fluorescent gases, except it emits an invisible infrared light only when the dye reacts with an organic material that absorbs the light. We called this method a "leak-testing". This type of testing can determine if there are air leaks in the walls, floors, or windows, or if any components such as doors, hinges, seals, or cracks are leaking. Know more about building performance testing.
Other building inspection tests are based on highly sensitive instruments like the infrared Doppler probe, or traced wire probes. When applied to the sample, or in some cases the entire building, these types of tools can determine the temperature distribution, the direction and intensity of the airflow, or the distribution of heat within a space. There are many different types of laboratory techniques used to perform trace wire or infrared Doppler testing. One of the most common is the platform scanning method.
In this method, a trace wire is attached to the edge of a rigid metallic membrane and the probe is placed over the sample. A computer uses mathematical algorithms to detect changes in the sample's resistance or conductivity. If the algorithm identifies a change, this can be used to determine if the sample's membrane surface has been degraded or if bonding of the sample to the membrane surface has occurred. The information provided by the algorithm determines the sample resistance or conductivity value, which can then be translated into performance specifications for the various parts of the building.
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