Blower Door Testing

While air filtration, duct cleaning, and general energy awareness are all important in the maintaining high indoor air quality, it is helpful to know what factors immediately impact your home. Blower door testing provides valuable data for homeowners about how air tight their houses area and where potential air leaks may be located.

Apple Heating & Cooling offers blower door testing to customers in the Greater Cleveland, OH area to help homeowners ensure the air tightness of their home, test for energy efficiency compliance and to check ductwork and cooling systems for potential leaks.

How Blower Door Testing Works

A blower door includes a carefully calibrated fan assembly and a custom door fitting attached to a pressure sensor. The fan pulls air from within a space and measures the pressure generated to check the air tightness of the building or room. The fan itself will generate the pressure so it is important to use the most advanced technology and equipment to get accurate readings for the building.

This kind of testing is important because it provides valuable data such as the severity of an air leak, which can lead to both heat and cooling loss throughout the year. It also provides data about moisture condensation, draftiness, and air quality. The more air that is able to enter the home from outside, the greater the risk that pollutants such as gas, smoke, or exhaust are able to circulate inside.

Setting Up a Blower Door

Setup generally takes only a few minutes, but it is important to make sure all windows and doors are closed fully, all interior doors are open and that all heating, cooling, and water heater devices are turned off before the test commences. Other factors that can influence the results of a test include wood stoves and fireplaces, fans in bathrooms or kitchens, dryers and washing machines with exhaust pipes and plumbing traps with air flow. Anything that could allow air into or out of the home should be addressed before starting the test.

Once the test is prepped, it can be turned on as the house is depressurized and the readings are taken. The process can take upwards of 1-2 hours depending on the size of the home, though most of the time it is a relatively quick process. Once air flow has been properly measured by the blower door, you will learn just how much air might be leaking from your home. For reference, the best standard is between .6 and 1.2 air changes per hour (ACH) and the average house is between 1.5 and 2.5 with some as high as 4.0. The ACH is a measure of how many times the air is replaced within a defined space.

Once the Northeastern Ohio area blower door experts at Apple have completed your test, we can help you interpret the results and take any additional actions necessary. High heating oil and gas prices can make long winters even tougher, so ensuring that your home‘s windows, doors and vents are properly sealed is an important process. Call us today for more information about how to take action now.

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