Tag: home performance

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Homeowner Education: The Missing Key to Understanding Your Home’s Systems

Buying or building a home isn’t just about walls, a roof, and the finishes. It’s also about systems: the heating and cooling equipment that keeps you comfortable, the ventilation that maintains a healthy indoor environment, the plumbing and electrical networks that we’ve all come to rely on. Yet many homeowners — new and those who’ve owned a home for years — don’t fully understand how their house actually works. A few manuals in a drawer aren’t enough.

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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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