Ever heard of a “blower door test”? If the term is foreign to you, you’re not alone. When it comes to improving home performance, however, there are few tools that “measure up” to the effectiveness of the blower door. Blower door tests are specifically helpful for homeowners that believe their homes are suffering from excessive air leaks, as there’s no better way to get to the bottom of the problem.
What is a Blower Door Test?
The basics of what makes up a blower door test are relatively easy to understand. The blower door itself is essentially a powerful, variable-speed fan that is fixed to a frame and flexible panel, which is then fitted to an exterior doorway. Once the fan is turned on, it sucks inside air out of the house, resulting in a drop in pressure within the home. The lowered pressure inside can actually serve to boost the pressure outside, causing air to attempt to recirculate into the home through cracks and openings that haven’t been properly sealed.
Because a blower door test can reveal major air leakage problems and is able to gauge specific pressures within the home, the end result of the test can provide you with much of the information you need to have valuable changes made to your home that will tighten-up the building envelope (the boundary separating the inside from the outside), and therefore minimize unwanted exchanges between your inside, conditioned spaces & the outside, unconditioned air.
Do You Need a Blower Door Test?
The short answer to whether or not you need a blower door test for your home is that every homeowner can benefit from having one performed. Even if your home was built relatively recently, there’s always a chance that cracks and openings might exist, which in turn will cause inside air to escape the home. Those who live in older homes are at an even higher risk for leakage issues, making it all the more important & valuable to schedule a blower door test.
Conducting a blower door test is beneficial for a number of reasons, including the following:
- Improved Energy Efficiency — A tightened home is a more energy-efficient home. If significant cracks and leaks in your homes’ envelope can be located & identified, and then sealed properly, you can expect to see reduced energy bills and an improvement in overall energy efficiency.
- Enhanced Home Comfort — Having a hard time getting your inside temperatures exactly where you want them to be? In many cases, this can boil down to air escaping through leaks in the home. A blower door test can give you much of the information you need to take your homes’ comfort to the next level.
- Better Indoor Air Quality — Keeping your conditioned, properly filtered air inside the home – and unconditioned, unfiltered air out - is a great way to create a healthier, safer living environment for you and your family. Increased indoor air quality often results from implementing the improvement opportunities identified via a blower door test.
The blower door test is a huge part of the home energy audit process, and its importance is only increasing as the housing stock in Central New Jersey increases in age. For more information, contact us today to schedule an appointment.
