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Blower Door Testing Prior To Remodeling

Matt Risinger, Blogger

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Blower Door testing is a way to measure how "tightly" your house was built.  You're heard me preach about Build Tight, Ventilate Right.  Well, this is the way we ensure that we've Built Tight.  This essential test is required if you rate your house through the Austin Energy Green Building Program, but more importantly it gives us a baseline on the house's performance so when we remodel we'll know where to focus our attention.  In this video, my tester Tim Brown of Pioneer Designs will walk you through how the test is performed and what you'll learn from doing the test in your house.  This is a particularly interesting house as it's only 10 years old and was built in the ubiquitous Tuscan style.  The home was built with standard fiberglass batt insulation in the walls and ceiling.   -Matt Risinger

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An Open-and-Shut (Book) Case

Comments (3)

tommmy writes: @Mike Guertin: I totally agree. Get an energy audit through a BPI Certified professional. If you are interested in becoming BPI Certified, you can get the training and the testing through the company, CleanEdison. They have training programs all over the country, takes a couple days and a test and you are ready to perform energy audits safely and thoroughly. check them out!
Posted: 10:49 am on September 10th

Matt Risinger writes: @MikeGuertin: Good point Mike! In this case, the clients had moved out prior to this test and all the gas appliances were outside of the house envelope. The gas furnaces & gas water heaters were all in the attic so there was not chance of backdrafting. Also, good point about BPI certification. -Matt Risinger
Posted: 3:04 pm on September 5th

MikeGuertin writes: This is a good overview of a blower door test but there's one important process that should take place before a blower door test is done on your house or if you're a contractor - on a client's home: A complete safety check that includes combustible gas leaks and combustion appliance exhaust performance.

Ideally the blower door technician should be certified by the Building Performance Institute (BPI) and follow their testing protocol. The safety check not only identifies unsafe conditions within the house but also ensures that operating a blower door won't cause an unsafe condition inside the house.
Posted: 11:33 am on September 4th

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