Scope of use

Key applications

Key applications for Pulse include:

• Establishing the air permeability of existing domestic dwellings and non-domestic buildings to quantify energy losses and to identify ventilation risks.
• Demonstrating the improvements achieved with the installation of measures that improve airtightness.
• Pre-compliance quality assurance checks on new-build residential or commercial properties.
• Check that there is sufficient background ventilation in single rooms.
• Testing the integrity of other enclosures where airtightness may be critical, such as containment labs, clean rooms, gaseous fire suppression rooms and refrigeration chambers.

UK building regulations

Within the UK, Pulse is an approved air testing method for testing air permeability in Approved Document L (England & Wales - Volumes 1 & 2) as well as Section 6 Technical Handbook (Scotland).

England: Approved Document L

Building regulation in England setting standards for the energy performance of new and existing buildings.

Wales: Approved Document L

Guidance on the Welsh building regulation requirements on conservation of fuel and power.

Scotland: Technical Handbook – Section 6

Provides guidance on achieving the standards set in the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Airtightness testing standards

Whenever carrying out air tests, an approved airtightness testing standard should be followed. Pulse is an approved method in CIBSE TM23.

CIBSE TM23 – Testing buildings for air leakage

TM23 describes why you should be carrying out air leakage testing, sets out acceptable rates of air filtration, and explains what you can do if you discover you have a problem.

Comparison to blower door fan method

A blower door fan measures air leakage rates at much higher pressures than Pulse (typically 20-70Pa). It also slightly compromises the building envelope as the fan is mounted in an external doorway.

In comparison, a Pulse test measures building leakage across a range of low pressures (typically 2-15 Pa) in a dynamic manner, and requires no penetrations to the outside or any external pressure tapings.

This involves high frequency logging of data points over what is typically 6-15 seconds but the results are plotted and presented in the same format as the fan pressurisation method.

Since a Pulse test works at low pressure, it exerts no abnormal pressurisation or depressurisation loads on the building envelope, so there is no requirement for combined pressurisation and depressurisation tests.

The air leakage rate at 4 Pa, as measured directly by the Pulse method, is widely considered the typical pressure differential across a building envelope over the course of the seasons (i.e. a representative whole year average).

The key feature of the Low Pressure Pulse method therefore is that it provides an air change rate measurement that is representative of normal inhabited conditions, helping to improve understanding of in-use energy performance and true building ventilation needs.