CPS Leakage Air Tightness Testing on Non Residential Buildings
CPS has carried out air tests on over 21,000 Commercial or Non Residential buildings including: air tests on retail units; air leakage tests on office developments; air leakage tests on schools; air tests on hospitals; air leakage tests on supermarkets, air permeability tests on sports centres; air tests on aircraft hangars; and air tightness testing on museums. We have carried out work in London, East Sussex, Kent and in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
We can therefore offer you advice about commercial air testing in buildings throughout East Anglia, including Norwich, Cambridge and Chelmsford. We will work with you at the design stage and during the build to help you achieve a compliant air test result building at and during a final air test.
We have the ability to air test small offices and industrial units up to buildings with an envelope area of 15,000m² at 10m3/h/m2 at 50pa.
H2: Part L2A Regulations 2010: Relevant to ‘New’ Commercial or Non - Residential Buildings
There is an air test requirement for all new Commercial or Non - Residential buildings above 500m² GIFA. Gross Internal floor Area (GIFA). The air test standard targeted is the ‘Design Air Permeability Rate’ found in the SBEM Calculation. This target figure is required before one can conduct an air test.
Buildings below 500m² GIFA are only exempt from an air test if an air leakage rate of 15 m³/h/m² is used in the SBEM Calculation and that calculation passes. Note that using such a high air leakage rate may result in a failure of the SBEM calculations unless compensated for elsewhere in the build specification with other CO2 footprint reducing measures. The maximum permissible air leakage rate, when conducting a final air test, is 10m3/h/m2.
H2: Part L2B Regulation: Relevant to New Commercial Buildings
An Air Test is required of a new extension to an existing building when the total useful floor area of the extension is greater than 100m2 and it increases the total useful floor area of the existing building by more than 25 per cent .
Usually just the extension is air tested.
If a project is less than 100m2 and does not increase the GIFA of the original by more than 25% then an air test is not required unless specified by the client.
Read why Air Leakage Testing is Important for Businesses here
