A home-energy evaluation is an excellent way to determine your home’s efficiency. An energy auditor will conduct several tests, and then determine where your home is losing energy and what steps you can take to fix your issues. One of the tests that your auditor will conduct is a blower door test.

What does the blower door test do?

A blower door test determines how airtight your home is. Finding and sealing air leaks will help you reduce your home’s energy loss, avoid moisture problems, reduce the amount of cold drafts throughout your home, and improve your indoor air quality.

A blower door test utilizes a large fan that your auditor will place inside the frame of one of your home’s exterior doors. This fan has the following components:

• A variable-speed fan.
• A pressure gauge, which measures the difference in air pressure between the inside and the outside of your home.
• An airflow manometer and hoses, which measure airflow.

How does the test work?

The fan sucks out your home’s indoor air, causing your home’s air pressure to drop. This allows high-pressure air from outside to sneak in through any air leaks that are present. Your auditor will spot leaks by using use either a smoke pencil or a thermographic scan, which uses infrared video. Since cold air shows up black in infrared light, it allows the auditor to spot where cold air is entering your home.

Preparing for a blower door test

To make sure that your test is as accurate as possible, you should:

• Make sure all interior doors are open.
• Close all the windows in your home.
• Cover ashes in your wood stove or fireplace with damp newspapers.
• Close fireplace doors and dampers.
• Close wood-stove air intakes.

A blower door test is extremely efficient way to determine if your home has any air leaks. To schedule a home energy evaluation, including a blower door test, contact Powers Heating & Air. We provide top quality HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) service to residents of the Peachtree City area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Peachtree, GA and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about energy evaluations and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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