Another Blower Door Test

Earth Advantage Technical Specialist, Joel Tolman came out yesterday to do a final inspection and Blower Door Test on another of our homes. The Blower Door Test measures how well a house resists infiltration of outside air. Infiltration typically represents 20-40% of the cost of heating a home so stopping as much of it as possible is an important step in reducing energy use.

To perform the test an exterior door is opened and sealed with a panel that includes a large fan. Negative pressure is created inside the house by blowing the air out. Using an electronic sensor, the tester can then measure the amount of air that is able to infiltrate through windows, doors or any other breach points. Performance is determined by how many times per hour the air in the house changes over. The lower the number is, the better sealed the house is.

The typical house, built to current code, usually scores 10 Air Changes per Hour (ACH). To qualify for the Energy Star rating a house can score no higher than 7 ACH. A better than average score falls in the range of 3 to 5 ACH. Our house scored 1.6 ACH.

Even though we've scored so well we were able to identify some of the areas we had breaches. We'll be asking Earth Advantage to come back next week to measure again and the new home owner will be in attendance.

Mark Mecklem - Miranda Homes