Blower door
anonymoususer
| Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on
Shout out to all my lovely hers raters! Im curious: what is the highest air changes per hour (at 50pa) you have ever seen on a blower door test for single family residential? We live in a 1800s barn-like structure with Swiss cheese envelope and limited house wrap. Near VT-NH-MA intersection. Our report came back at 10.4ach50
We are working with building scientist to improve envelope but i just wondered if meanwhile we can celebrate the infamous accolade of scoring the highest any hers rater has ever seen…?
if mot, what’s the highest you’ve ever seen? Do share! Thanks!
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Replies
That's not that high. Once you get around 20 the fan runs out of capacity to move enough air to get a measurement.
Thanks--very helpful to know!
1906 balloon framed 2.5 story. 21ACH@50PA. The tech could not depressurize enough to pull 50PA.
1880 1.5 story (my house) - just had a blower door done today.
17.4ACH@50PA.
Not great but... damn, Akos, that 21 makes me feel a little better!
Paul,
Might as well just live outside.
Yep.
Rule of thumb: if opening a window during your blower door test doesn't change the test result, your house must be excessively leaky :-D
Bill
Malcolm,
Yep, it's just like camping.
Nothing surprising, given what I already knew about the house. Downside is that I can't swing a full gut reno to knock everything out at once, so it'll be slow going with a room-by-room approach. Upside is that at 17.4 ACH50, it's not like I'm tracking down unsealed outlets and tricky transitions... more like "covering up big holes" - so making some big steps forward won't be that hard.
We got 15 ACH pre-renovation. You could see the candle flames move in the living room.
We just had another test done pre-drywall after renovating.
.88!!!
Was that from what I'd call "conventional" air sealing efforts, or did you use aerobarrier?
Bill
Aerobarrier. Plus, I was pretty diligent before they came in. It's an old house.
I've always been curious about using aerobarrier in a renovation (not new construction). Did you have any issues with their sealant sneaking into any places it shouldn't be, or otherwise causing problems and messing up any existing stuff in the house?
Bill
Bill, this was a gut renovation, down to the studs. The new HVAC ducts and bath vents were already installed, but not the fans. The house was completely "roughed in", so to speak with no equipment or appliances installed yet. They spent the day before taping off all the electrical, ducts, windows, doors, fireplace etc. Some of the vapor did get on the windows, but it's water soluble. Hopefully we'll be moving in in 6 weeks.