Blower Door and Air Duct Testing

Blower door and air dust testing is included with all energy audits but can be used as a stand alone service.
This may be useful if you feel drafts in your home and want to find where they originate or have had energy
upgrades and need to just locate where air leaks are for air sealing.

What is a blower door?
A blower door is pretty much what it sounds like. It consists of an adjustable frame fitted with a membrane
that inserted in an exterior door frame. This assembly has a large hole near the bottom that a high velocity
fan is inserted and an electronic instrument call a manometer is used to measure the air leakage or
"tightness" of the house envelope. The fan has an adjustable control to increase and decrease the fan
speed and flow and the manometer takes air flow measurements to determine if the house is leaky,
average or tight.

How is the blower door set up?
Before the testing begins, all windows need to be closed, fireplace dampers need to be closed and if there
are any gas appliances present within the house envelope, the pilot lights need to be extinguished. The
technician then will begin the testing by either de-pressurizing the house with the fan blowing to the outside
or pressurizing the house with the fan blowing to the interior. The fan is turned up to a pressure value that is
equivalent to a 20mph wind blowing on all side of the house. This value is small and will not cause damage
to the house or belongings. When this pressure value is reached, the manometer will indicate how much air
is leaking from all the cracks and openings from the house.

What is my house is found to be leaky?
All homes have air leaks in some form. In fact, some new homes are so "tight" they have to have fresh air
devices installed. You can have a home too tight and need a certain amount of fresh air exchanges so that
the air does not become stagnant. But if your home is found to be very leaky, air sealing should be
performed. An average house can have enough air leaks that if you added them up, it would be like having a
small window open all the time. To find where these leaks are, a smoke or powder generating device can
be used to go throughout the house and locate these so that you know where sealing should be performed.
I personally prefer to de-pressurize the house to determine the leakage and then pressurize the house to
find the leaks.
An important consideration before air sealing a home with gas appliances is to have the appliances
checked for proper drafting and emission of carbon monoxide (CO). I include this as part of the blower door
and air duct testing. To read my article on this........click here

Why test the air ducts?
The majority of the air loss from air circulating in the heating and air conditioning system is from the joints
and connections in the air ducts. To test for leaky air ducts, I use a device called a pressure pan. While the
blower door is running, the manometer is connected to the pressure pan and is placed over each air
register and return to determine if they are leaky or tight. If they are found to be leaky, the best method to
seal ducts and joints is with a thick gray substance called mastic. This can be purchased from any hardware
store and is applied with a brush and when it dries, it seals the air leaks like a cast.
See the video below for a demonstration of a pressure pan test. Keep in mind that the register in the video
is wall mounted while the registers in you home may be on the ceiling.

Pricing:
To get a no pressure, no obligation quote for Home Energy Services, go to my home energy contact form or
call me at 817-705-3200
For the contact form.......click here

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