What Is A Blower Door Test

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.

What is a blower door test.

A blower door is a machine used to measure the airtightness of buildings. There are two types of blower doors. He will systematically move about your home setting up the house for the test. Once he is done with his walk through your auditor will begin the test.

The auditor will set up his blower door in an outer door facing outward to depressurize your home in most cases. 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 test requires a few parameters be set to yield accurate results. It is designed to check for air leaks in walls attics and mechanical penetrations.

Blower doors consist of a frame and flexible panel that fit in a doorway a variable speed fan a pressure gauge to measure the pressure differences inside and outside the home and an airflow manometer and hoses for measuring airflow. 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 way to check how air tight a structure is. A blower door test is performed to measure the exact air tightness of a home.

1 a calibrated variable speed fan capable of inducing a range of airflows sufficient to. 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. 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. This test ensures a certain level of energy performance and is often used when a project team is aiming for a performance based.

The blower door test. Understanding blower door test results. 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. 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.

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 used on buildings in order to quantify the amount of air leakage through its enclosure.