Simply put a blower door is a diagnostic tool used to measure how much air infiltration air leakage occurs in a house.
Blower door test results forum.
This test ensures a certain level of energy performance and is often used when a project team is aiming for a performance based building standard like passive house which requires a blower door test result of less than 0 6 air changes per hour at 50 pascals of pressure ach 50.
Performing a one point test no software gather data record five 10 second average minimum baseline readings to determine the level of accuracy perform blower door test using the baseline and cfm50 functions.
Now for us would create confusion among some builders.
Higher numbers are worse.
Blower door test results are standardized for an air pressure difference of 50 pa.
If your home is 2000.
The following will help you conduct your.
Testing done at the higher end of the range between 40 and 60 pa generally produces the most accurate results.
Better consistency and reproducibility.
A blower door test is used on buildings in order to quantify the amount of air leakage through its enclosure.
Changing to the cfm50 sq.
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.
The blower door test.
It s a linear scale so 2000 is twice as bad as 1000.
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.
Blower door values testing can be done for pressure differences ranging between 10 and 60 pa.
What does the blower door number mean.
The builders i work with have grown accustom to the ach50 number most have a basic understanding of the test results.
I conduct blower door testing in northern minnesota which has had testing as part of the code since 2015.
Understanding blower door test results.
A blower door is mounted in an external door frame hoses are connected to measure the air pressure outside inside and in the fan assembly and a manometer is set up to run the whole test the fan in the door blows air out of the house depressurizing the home to a set standard with the outside.
Here is what a reading on the blower door looks like.