Blower Door Test
This week we are finally finishing construction on an Energy Star home for a customer so it was time to perform a blower door test. The blower door test is used as an analytical measure of a houses air tightness. The Energy Star Certification program uses the results from a blower door test as one benchmark in determining whether a house meets the criteria.
The blower door test was performed by a third party inspector using the equipment shown in the photo. This simple piece of equipment contains an adjustable door panel, a calibrated fan and an air pressure measuring device. The fan is turned on to create a negative air pressure in the home which allows the tester to calculate a standard CFM50 score. The CFM50 score is definted as the air flow in cubic feet per minute required to create a 50 pascal pressure difference in the house compared to outside.
The CFM50 score is then used in a computer model along with information about the insulation R values, door and window U values and the square footage of the home. The computer model then generates a score that’s used for the final Energy Star rating. We should get the results back in the next week or so and it will be interesting to see how this new home rates.
Stay tuned for the results!
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