Blower Door Test

A blower door fan simulates these conditions during a test.

Blower door test.

As the fan is running a technician can move from room to room throughout the house to detect. The second part of this series will pick up with our blower door test from the moment we turn on the manometer. 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 test is used on buildings in order to quantify the amount of air leakage through its enclosure.

Holtkamp heating a c inc. 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. To conduct a blower door test an infiltrometer or blower door fan is placed in the main entry doorway to depressurize the house or suck out air from the interior. Our energy saver 101 infographic explains the importance of a blower door test during a home energy audit.

Simply put a blower door is a diagnostic tool used to measure how much air infiltration air leakage occurs in a house. 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. There are three primary components to a blower door.

The blower door test simulates wind blowing against a building at 20 miles per hour in which case the total volume of air within the house would be exchanged with outside air 7 times. Understanding blower door test results. Since blower door testing is a standard tool used during an energy audit it is helpful for inspectors to understand how the test works. 1 a calibrated variable speed fan capable of inducing a range of airflows sufficient to.

Professional energy auditors use blower door tests to help determine a home s airtightness. These are some reasons for establishing the proper building. 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. The 20mph wind is equivalent to 50 pascals pa of pressure difference.

This test ensures a certain level of energy performance and is often used when a project team is aiming for a performance based. We ll also get to find out what the major inf. Knowing a bit about the outside factors that can influence the results will ensure that the test is performed correctly. A blower door is a machine used to measure the airtightness of buildings.

This process will cause outside air to be drawn into the house through leakage points.