What Is A Blower Door Test
He will systematically move about your home setting up the house for the test.
What is a blower door test. Blower doors were developed originally for houses as most good energy efficiency technologies are commercial debt is basically 15 20 years behind and this blower door testing is a classic example. Blower door tests are performed by trained and certified energy auditors but a homeowner can conduct a mini test to help pinpoint leaky areas of the home. A blower door is a machine used to measure the airtightness of buildings. It can also be used to measure airflow between building zones to test ductwork airtightness and to help physically locate air leakage sites in the building envelope.
The following will help you conduct your. There are three primary components to a blower door. Once he is done with his walk through your auditor will begin the test. Beginning with the 2012 iecc a maximum air leakage rate is defined and each new home must meet this tightness level verified with a blower door test.
It is designed to check for air leaks in walls attics and mechanical penetrations. While a blower door test does not evaluate how well a structure is insulated it can reveal drafty walls and air bypass situations that could undermine otherwise well insulated wall assemblies. A blower door test is a way to check how air tight a structure is. There are two types of blower doors.
The auditor will set up his blower door in an outer door facing outward to depressurize your home in most cases. During this test a calibrated fan is installed in an otherwise sealed door or window while all the other openings to the exterior are closed. Understanding blower door test results. This test ensures a certain level of energy performance and is often used when a project team is aiming for a performance based.
Simply put a blower door is a diagnostic tool used to measure how much air infiltration air leakage occurs in a house. Last year we built an energy star home for a customer and we used a blower door test to evaluate the houses air infiltration performance. A blower door test is a machine used to calculate airflow between the interior and exterior of a structure measure the airtightness of buildings and identify spots where air is leaking through a building envelope. The blower door test.
The test requires a few parameters be set to yield accurate results. A blower door test is used on buildings in order to quantify the amount of air leakage through its enclosure.