Blower Door Testing

Why a Blower Door Test?
Professional energy auditors use blower door tests to help determine a home's airtightness.
You can reduce your home's heating and cooling costs through proper insulation and air sealing techniques. These techniques will also make your home more comfortable.
Any air sealing efforts will complement your insulation efforts, and vice versa. Proper moisture control and ventilation strategies will improve the effectiveness of air sealing and insulation, and vice versa. Therefore, a home's energy efficiency depends on a balance between Air Sealing, Insulation, Moisture Control and Ventilation.
A proper balance between all of these elements will also result in a more comfortable, healthier home environment.

The benefits
Because your home is sealed and evenly pressurized, it’s easy to find out exactly where air leaks are occurring. In most cases, you can feel air leaks with your hand or see them with the use of a tissue or smoke pencil.
While you’d probably expect to find drafts around windows and doors, you might be surprised to learn how much air can leak around electrical outlets and plumbing pipes.
Blower door tests can also help identify sources of indoor air quality problems, such as carbon monoxide.

How the Blower Door works
A blower door is a powerful fan that mounts into the frame of an exterior door. The fan pulls air out of the house, lowering the air pressure inside. The higher outside air pressure then flows in through all unsealed cracks and openings. The auditors may use a smoke pencil to detect air leaks. These tests determine the air infiltration rate of a building.
Blower doors consist of a frame and flexible panel that you can place in a doorway, a variable-speed fan, a pressure gauge to measure the pressure differences inside and outside the home, and an airflow manometer and hoses for measuring airflow.

Moisture Control
Properly controlling moisture in your home will improve the effectiveness of your air sealing and insulation efforts, and vice versa. Thus, moisture control contributes to a home's overall energy efficiency.
The best strategy for controlling moisture in your home depends on your climate and how your home is constructed. Before deciding on a moisture control strategy for your home, you may first want to understand how moisture moves throughout your home. Proper ventilation is vital as part of a moisture control strategy. WOW can arrange to provide moisture monitoring.

To book a blower test or to obtain further information simply telephone the offices of WOW Alternative Energy and Environmental Solutions Ltd. Tel. +353 (0)93 60742