Balanced mechanical ventilation is code required in all new construction in my home state of Minnesota. Indoor air quality has become a big topic with today’s pandemic. My market uses HRV’s or heat recovery ventilators almost exclusively. They work great at supplying the home with filtered fresh air and at controlling indoor humidity levels. You can read more about HRV’s here. Continue reading “Construction Design-HRV or ERV”
Energy Audit-Homemade Blower Door
A blower door is an expensive tool. A full kit including frame, panel, fan and manometer will cost more than $3500. Add in the other tools for finding air leaks and you could easily drop over $5000. And then you still need to have some training to understand how to operate and interpret the results. Continue reading “Energy Audit-Homemade Blower Door”
Diagnostic Tools-Blower Doors
This week, I’m going to start a new category of subject matter to discuss, the tools I own and use when conducting energy audits, assessments and performing home diagnostic testing. We are going to start with my number one diagnostic tool, the blower door. Continue reading “Diagnostic Tools-Blower Doors”
Energy Audit-Really Good Windows
Occasionally, when conducting energy audits and assessments, a customer will make a statement to the effect that they believe their windows are the main issue with why they are experiencing high energy costs. They are hoping to replace all their windows to lower the heating (or cooling) bills. Continue reading “Energy Audit-Really Good Windows”
Construction Materials-ThermalTight
I learned about a company called BRINC Building Products, Inc a couple years ago. They had developed a solution for how to attach windows when using exterior insulation. Normally we would build a wood buck to move the rough framing out to the plane of the exterior insulation. Continue reading “Construction Materials-ThermalTight”
Energy Audit-Blower Door Testing-A Deep Dive
I’ve talked about blower door testing several times on Green Building Advisor and on this blog. This discussion will dive deeper into blower door testing, when it should be completed, the different tests done with the blower door, and interpreting the information. Continue reading “Energy Audit-Blower Door Testing-A Deep Dive”
Construction Design-Continuous Exterior Insulation
You would think that in my very cold climate of Northern Minnesota, we would be putting as much insulation in our walls and roofs as possible. Not the case. The majority of new homes I blower door test have the code minimum R-21 of wall cavity insulation Continue reading “Construction Design-Continuous Exterior Insulation”
Opinion-5 Reasons to Own A Blower Door
By now most of us know what a blower door does and the basics of how they work. All energy auditors and raters own one. A few insulating contractors I know also have purchased their own blower door. As a contractor, does it make sense to invest a sizable amount of money and then take the time to learn how to operate this piece of test equipment. Continue reading “Opinion-5 Reasons to Own A Blower Door”
Energy Audit-Advanced Blower Door Testing-Zonal Pressures
Most of us by now know what a blower door is. A tool to measure the air tightness of a house. I’ve owned my Minneapolis Blower Door since 2009. Many states have adopted mandatory tightness testing on all new construction. In my area, the minimum is three air changes per hour at 50 Pascals (3 ACH50), Continue reading “Energy Audit-Advanced Blower Door Testing-Zonal Pressures”
Construction Design-Code Minimum House-Mechanicals
At the time of this writing, construction on the code minimum house is coming to an end. This has been a fun and rewarding project for me because not only was I able to design much of the home, I was also directly involved in the construction. Continue reading “Construction Design-Code Minimum House-Mechanicals”