Category: Building Diagnostics

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Blower Door Testing for Contractors, Should You Own One?

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website.

I had the opportunity to interview Gary Nelson, one of the founders of The Energy Conservatory and Minneapolis Blower Door a few years ago.  An Interview with Gary Nelson-NorthernBuilt.  During the interview, he made the comment that his hope for the blower door when it first started appearing in the market was that every contractor would own one and that testing both existing and new homes would become a common practice.  That was 40 years ago.

We haven’t got there yet, but there are more and more contractors purchasing the tool and there are many online videos and webinars showing how a blower door is set up and used.  In this blog, I’ll discuss how to perform basic diagnostics on a home using a blower door.  Methods used to find air leaks, a short discussion on zonal pressure testing, and different tasks that the manometer can perform, all topics I think a contractor that owns (or wants to own) a blower door should be familiar with.

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What is a Blower Door Test? An Introduction.

This blog post first appeared on the Andersen Windows ProViews Blog

We’ve known for a few decades that improving the air tightness of a home and installing a properly designed mechanical ventilation system can greatly enhance the performance of a home.  Having the ability to verify the airtightness of the structure is key, we perform verification by using a tool called a blower door.  This introductory blog will answer the questions; what is a blower door test?  Why do we perform blower door testing?  How is the test performed?  How do we interpret the test results?  What else can a blower door be used for?  Are there codes relating to blower door testing?  Before we dive into those questions, let’s start with that first question, what is a blower door test?

A blower door test is a test to confirm the continuity and integrity of a structure’s air barrier.

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How to Track Appliance Electricity Use

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website.

Part of my job working as an energy auditor is educating homeowners on electricity usage, reviewing and analyzing historical electricity usage is part of the process.  Checking service conductors and individual branch circuits in an electrical service panel is also sometimes needed.  This information lets me know if an appliance, motor, or other device is operating as expected.  How about electricity usage of an appliance or other equipment over time?  My visit to a home is usually under four hours, hardly enough time to figure out how often a device operates.  For this, we need tools that can record data.

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Can Short Term Indoor Air Quality Testing be Effective?

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website.

I own a CPS IAQPRO Smart Air professional indoor air quality monitor that I use on nearly every energy audit and building investigation I perform.  The tool measures particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), volatile organic compounds (VOC), carbon dioxide (CO2), temperature, relative humidity, pressure and dew point.  The question is, can short term air quality monitoring provide any useful feedback as to the indoor air quality of the home?  The answer, yes and no.

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Ice Dams-Why They Form and How to Reduce their Risk

There is a lot of confusion as to why ice dams form on roofs in cold climates.  This is understandable, some years we experience heavy ice dams, other years have little to no issues.  Changes in weather from year to year can have a major impact on their formation.  I’ve seen new homes with ice dams that are completely related to winter freeze/thaw cycles.  That being said, most ice dam issues are directly caused by certain characteristics of the home, namely insulation levels and air tightness.

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Building Diagnostic-Service Panel Corrosion

The following post is a copy of the report I sent to the owners of this home having severe corrosion of their electrical service panels.

I was asked to investigate the source of corrosion and rust in the electrical service panels for a couple living in Northern Minnesota.  The original service panels were replaced in 2022.  Deterioration of the replacements has warranted a third set of electrical panels. 

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Building Diagnostics-Single Point vs Multi-point Blower Door Testing

This Article first appeared in the September/October issue of The Journal of Light Construction.

The main purpose of a blower door test is to confirm the integrity and continuity of the air control layer or air barrier.  I have a few different options on how to perform a test.  Which option I choose is dependent on the reason I am performing the test.

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Building Diagnostics-Blower Door Testing-Calculating a Home’s Volume

This article first appeared in the July/August 2022 issue of the Journal of Light Construction.   www.jlconline.com.   Strangely enough, they chose to put me on the cover.

A blower door is designed to measure the volume of air moving across the blower door fan at a specific pressure difference between inside and outside the home.  The volume of air measurement in the US is cubic feet per minute (CFM) and the pressure differential is measured in Pascals (50 Pascals is the standard for residential construction).  One of the more common metrics used to express air leakage in a home is air changes per hour (ACH).  The only way we can calculate that metric is by measuring a home’s volume.

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