What You Need to Know About the Blower Door Test

Gaps and cracks around your residential or commercial property’s building envelope can let in the elements, including air and moisture. These can result in poor indoor air quality, which can lead to adverse health effects for occupants. Also, expect soaring heating and cooling costs every time conditioned air coming from your HVAC system escapes from your home or building.

To find out whether your home or building is still airtight from the inside, you need to conduct a blower door test. Here’s what you need to know about this procedure:

What Is a Blower Door Test?

A blower door test is used on residential, commercial and industrial buildings to quantify the amount of air leakage throughout the enclosure. It involves a powerful fan that’s calibrated and mounted in a temporary airtight frame of an exterior door or window, while all the other openings remain closed. Once turned on, it pulls air out of the house or building, creating a pressure difference between the outside and the inside. The amount of air pulled by the fan and coming in through the unsealed openings is measured using a pressure gauge.

The result of the blower door test helps determine if the building envelope has any unsealed openings. After the procedure, infrared cameras and other related technology are used to locate and identify areas where there could be air and moisture leaks like the attic and crawl spaces. Necessary repairs can then be implemented to improve comfort, energy efficiency and indoor air quality once and for all.

How Important Is This Test?

Local building codes require blower door tests in residential, commercial and industrial construction projects. These are also conducted in HVAC installations, especially when ensuring the proper sizing of a furnace or air conditioner. The amount of heating and cooling you need depends on how airtight your home or building is. This then ties into how carefully your HVAC system is designed.

Entergis Testing & Sealing, LLC is a full-service air leakage testing and sealing contractor. We offer a wide range of services covering a vast majority of air leakage problems you might encounter, from simple air sealing to NFPA room integrity testing. Give us a call today at (225) 445-2362 or fill out our contact form to schedule an appointment.