Using a passive tracer gas technique, 1 and 2 week averages of local mean ages of air have been estimated in an occupied detached single family house in mid-Sweden during one year. In this paper the measurement result is compared with the result of transient simulation of ventilation using the CONTAM program. The simulation shows that the whole-house air change rate is dominated by the infiltration due to mechanically created pressure difference as long as the outdoor temperature difference exceeds approx. 10 °C. At lower outdoor temperature, the natural driving force becomes increasingly more important increasing the local air change rate (local ACH) in the basement. However, the local ACH on the ground floor is almost independent of indoor-outdoor temperature difference and completely dominated by the mechanical extract. The result from the simulation can reproduce the result of the measurement in satisfactory detail without using wind pressure data.