Airtightness at building component scale deserves much more focus than it gets. Unfortunately, the most popular method (i.e., indirect method) for its in-situ measurement suffers from substantial uncertainties. An alternative method is the direct component testing: a pressure chamber isolates the component from the rest of the building. This paper presents the method performed on three different newly-installed windows. These applications highlight three difficulties encountered: the chamber must resist to pressure differences higher than 50 Pa, the duct linking the fan to the chamber should be straight and the measured leakage should be perfectly identified. Then, authors performed two series of tests (10 and 12) in repeatability conditions. These allow to compare the uncertainty of the direct component testing (0.29 m3/h, 9.7%) with the expected uncertainty of the indirect method for a similar case (1.53 m3/h, 51.2%). These findings indicate a strong potential for the direct component testing to be used for in-situ measurements. Further work should tackle three limitations of this study identified by authors: other building component should be tested; other repeatability tests should be performed to identify factors responsible for the results variation; and both methods (i.e., direct and indirect) should be compared on the same case.
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