Blower doors revisited

antman

Not to sound stupid, but could someone explain what the purpose of the blower door test is, and how it works. I have VERY limited knowledge on this subject and definatley want to educate myself.

TIA, Ant

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Wayco Wayne

Blower doors

I read on the Wall about the benefits of blower door tests. No one around here does them, but I am finding more and more jobs that should and would benefit from a test. I'm thinking od investing in one. Whosell them and what would you experienced guys recommend. WW

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Mark Hunt

I got mine

through the "Home performance with Energy Star" program here in New York. I believe they purchsed the Blower door kits through the Energy Conservancy.

When you can quantify and identify the leakage for a building, it certainly gives you a better understanding of how the building works.

I'll get more info for you soon.

Mark H

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hot_rod

Training is crucial

you really need to attend their training class. Here is the brand I have worked with.

hot rod

http://www.retrotec.com/a/hvac-2A.html

Al D'Ambola

Blower Doors have a place

in our industry they are a great tool to measure how thight a home or building is in measuring air changes. Training is critical with a blower door. I was a trainer for Retrotec for 2 1/2 years the training is very expensive. There are some issues you need to understand before you invest in this equipment, give me a call and I would be happy to help you 800-633-70558

Duncan

Minneapolis blower door.

I used them years ago doing jobs for the Office of Energy Conservation and found them pretty easy to use. Good product, they're well-recognized, but not cheap.

Go to http://www.dogpile.com and do a websearch on "blower door".

Mark Hunt

Investment

Blower doors are another of those tools that do not really cost money, they make money for you. We as heating contractors need to look at a home as a system. We could put in a 92% condensing boiler, but if the home is very connected to the outside with a major stack effect going on how long will the payback period be? Make friends with a shell contractor and work with them. The blower door is a great tool to have and identify air leakage. The program my company is associated with in New York State will pobably be coming to your state in the near future. Energy Star. EXCELLENT TRAINING is provided through this program on building sciences. For most people who have worked in the mechanical trades for most of their lives it is a real eye opener.

Wayco Wayne

Hey Al,

I would love to call you and discuss blower doors with you but the number you left had an exra digit. E-mail me at wacrump@aol.com or leave the number here in a response. Thanks Wayco Wayne

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Al D'Ambola

Sorry Wayne my # 800--633-7058

Al D'Ambola

Blower Door

is a tool in which you can measure the infiltration rate of a home or building.You can pressurize the structure or depressurize and based on the atmospheric pressure with refrence to the house pressure they have computers or charts that will tell you how many air changes are happing in a structure.

They can show you where a home is leaking and or communicating to the outside. You can show duct leakage but can not quantify the amount of duct leakage. Blower door air leakage test are crude at best, but testing the envelope it's a great tool.

Duncan

Right

A blower door fits tightly into a door opening, and a large, adjustable speed fan on the unit is turned on, usually sucking air out of the house.

This will cause air to be drawn into the home at all places where there are infiltration leaks. Under sill plates, at windows, at plumbing and electrical penetrations, light fixtures, and plumbing chases for example. Fireplaces, wood stoves, bath fans, any intentional openings to the outside need to be taken into account (sealed shut).

You adjust the speed of the calibrated blower until you get the house at a certain pressure. The calibrated cubic feet per minute the fan is blowing is then used to calculate how many air changes per hour the house has at that pressure.

After some calculations, you have an idea how many air changes per hour the house is leaking under normal conditions. It has been hashed over countless times how accurate the numbers are - under different wind conditions, for example, and different approaches to normalize that number have been developed. Bottom line, it definitely is closer than a wild-**** guess, and if nothing else, it's a valuable tool to locate and fix air leaks.

It's a GREAT tool!

Mark Hunt

Can't top that!!!!


Excellent post Duncan!!

Mark H

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Wayco Wayne_2

I have a customer

who wanted a blower door test and could not find a contractor in the DC area that could do one. Ended up importing one from Richmond. They charged her 800 bucaroos for the visit and work. How much is a more typical charge for a local call and blower door test??? WW

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B. Tice

Blower Doors

Wayne, I do know it's very expensive to do this right. Like Duct cleaning. You may want to partner up with a large insulating company on this, they could do the test, recommend the insulation and sealing work needed, and you could handle the heating end.

Wayco Wayne

Hey

What a great idea! Thanks for the input. WW

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Dave_4

here's one

http://vt-neto.org/heat/blowdoor.html

GW

Al

> Sorry Wayne my # 800--633-7058





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GW

Al

Can you tell me "accepted" air change per hour for pre WW11, post WW11, and modern construction homes? I'm not looking for anything special, just average. I'd like to add this to my clauses. Right now I have an insulation clause, but if there is a gaping hole in the house, my nice heating systems won't work very well.

Thanks Al,

Gary
member NCI

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