DIY Blower Door testing

[mike93lx]

anyone ever rig something up to do leakage testing yourself?

I'm not looking for a defendable ACH50 figure to use for permitting, just a method to help with measuring improvements as I do work.

this site came up in a search and was also referenced in a thread i found on GBA

A DIY Blower Door -- Easy to Build -- Easy to Use -- Cheap

DIY Blower Door - GreenBuildingAdvisor

1st a little background. I built a 806 sq-ft cabin Washburn Co. WI. which is in zone 7. This cabin has been a DIY project built on a monolithic slab […]

www.greenbuildingadvisor.com

I am wishing that I kept the blowers from my recently removed HVAC systems, but i bet the guy that did the work for me can hook me up with a couple. My house is fairly large and I suspect quite leaky, so I might need two if I want to get to 50 Pa.

 

[240sxguy]

I'm very interested in what you find here.

 

[billconner]

Always thought this kind of gear should somehow be available for low cost or free loan.

Can be rented, but maybe not near you. Found 1 in PA - $100/half a day, $150 all day. Might beat messing around with diy.

 

[mike93lx]

Always thought this kind of gear should somehow be available for low cost or free loan.

Can be rented, but maybe not near you. Found 1 in PA - $100/half a day, $150 all day. Might beat messing around with diy.

Not seeing anything around me, but a quick search did yield an option somewhere. I'll do some more looking

Minneapolis Blower Door Kit Rental

This rental is a residential size professional grade blower door made by The Energy Conservatory.<br />DG-1000 Controller

www.gappower.com

 

[vavet]

Never done this but always been interested in this. Holler if you need help, whether diy or a rental. I’d be happy to lend a hand.

 

[mike93lx]

Never done this but always been interested in this. Holler if you need help, whether diy or a rental. I’d be happy to lend a hand.

Tell you what, I'll run the blower door and you can air seal my crawl space...deal?

I have The Drying Co coming out Tuesday for a quote. Guessing they will be expensive enough that I want to diy this. I'll let you know.

 

[fitter30]

Building Science-A Visual for Blower Door Testing – Northern Built

Short read though it was interesting

 

[danski0224]

Some utility companies offer this type of testing for free or a rebate.

You will also need something to visualize the leaks amplified by the "blower door", like a smoke pen/generator and a thermal camera.

It's possible that you can just get the whole job, plus a report, for less than $500.

Buying the equipment new is an expensive proposition.

I honestly don't know how people make money doing energy audits. I've not found anyone willing to pay for the diagnostics, much less pay for any corrective action.

 

[mike93lx]

Some utility companies offer this type of testing for free or a rebate.

You will also need something to visualize the leaks amplified by the "blower door", like a smoke pen/generator and a thermal camera.

It's possible that you can just get the whole job, plus a report, for less than $500.

Buying the equipment new is an expensive proposition.

I honestly don't know how people make money doing energy audits. I've not found anyone willing to pay for the diagnostics, much less pay for any corrective action.

MA had a great program that I got a ton of air sealing and insulation for. As far as I can tell, VA doesn't have a similar program.

I do have a flir camera coming this week

 

[danski0224]

I do have a flir camera coming this week

I'd look at Hikmicro. Their Pocket 2 is equal to something costing $5k not even 10 years ago.

Whole lot of features for the price points. And it actually saves thermographic data and not a screenshot like many of the Seek clones.

They also offer the hand grip camera style.

 

[mike93lx]

I'd look at Hikmicro. Their Pocket 2 is equal to something costing $5k not even 10 years ago.

Whole lot of features for the price points. And it actually saves thermographic data and not a screenshot like many of the Seek clones.

They also offer the hand grip camera style.

It may be a great deal for what it is, but I just got one of the smartphone add ons. Really low res, but I think it will be plenty good for what I need.

If it *****, I'll return it and take a look at that brand, thanks.

 

[billconner]

may be of interesthttps://www.northernbuilt.pro/energy-audit-homemade-blower-door/

 

[mike93lx]

may be of interesthttps://www.northernbuilt.pro/energy-audit-homemade-blower-door/

Thanks Bill. A carpet fan is a good idea and it's a much more useful form factor to have around long term

 

[billconner]

I thought the foam and carpet fan made a lot of sense, low cost, easy to do, easily reused or repurposed. Looking forward to your results!

 

[mike93lx]

Had someone out today that did a blower door as part of their evaluation/quoting process.

7 ACH50

I am not super surprised but was hoping it would be better.

I'm probably going to have them do air sealing in the attic, but I'll have to take on some of this myself

 

[Denwood]

Our 100 year house was at 8 ACH about 20 years back…pretty leaky. It’s a lot tighter now.

Kudos to you for taking on the challenge

 

[mike93lx]

Our 100 year house was at 8 ACH about 20 years back…pretty leaky. It’s a lot tighter now.

Kudos to you for taking on the challenge

Have you retested?

I am an avid DIY'r, but there is only so much time I am willing to spend in a respirator and tyvek suit. ROI is also quite long on this stuff, but the intention is to stay here for a while (we have about 14 years before my youngest goes to college), so it should be worth it

 

[Denwood]

I could not find the Energuide retest from that first evaluation but I know the place is much, much tighter now.

For one, co2 levels were spiking above 1600 ppm which precipitated the installation of a ventilation system.

The other is that I was able to pull .45 W.G. negative pressure in the house with two bath fans (maybe 60 CFM actual, each) and a kitchen exhaust running at 160CFM in recent testing. That surprised me.

Spray foam in the attics and renovations, tighter windows, blown in wall insulation and general air sealing have all stacked up to make the place quite efficient. This also gives us a good idea…not so bad for a 120ish year old house.

 

[Innovate1]

Interesting stuff. I had thought about trying to do some sort of DIY blower door some years ago but never did so will be following this. I did pay attention to air sealing when we had the current house built and our bills are low so no real need now (that I know of at least). The pull down stairs for the attic could seal better. I built a baffle around the top to keep the insulation in the attic and could make a cover for the top of that without too much trouble.

 

[mike93lx]

Interesting stuff. I had thought about trying to do some sort of DIY blower door some years ago but never did so will be following this. I did pay attention to air sealing when we had the current house built and our bills are low so no real need now (that I know of at least). The pull down stairs for the attic could seal better. I built a baffle around the top to keep the insulation in the attic and could make a cover for the top of that without too much trouble.

In my last place, I had a insulated zippered cover for the attic stairs that worked great.

I am contemplating just buying a 24" industrial fan and sealing it in the doorway with rigid foam. This house is leaky enough that a little fan won't get it done. For the blower door, he had to remove all the baffles and turn up the fan to hit 50 Pa

 

[duneslider]

7 is pretty high but that should mean there is a lot of low hanging fruit that you can easily work on. Curious what areas you found that need work to improve?

There is a part of me that also really really wants a blower door to play with. My house is pretty good but without a test no way to quantify. I know for sure I have some leaks around the rim joist. I am going to be working on that this winter.

 

[mike93lx]

7 is pretty high but that should mean there is a lot of low hanging fruit that you can easily work on. Curious what areas you found that need work to improve?

There is a part of me that also really really wants a blower door to play with. My house is pretty good but without a test no way to quantify. I know for sure I have some leaks around the rim joist. I am going to be working on that this winter.

They recommended top down. I think I am going to have them do the attic, to start. Once my thermal camera comes, I'm going to play around with leakage around the windows. We never open the damn things, so if I can add some foam along the bottom, in particular, I wonder if it will help.

I'm debating tackling the duct work myself. I am 100% sure I will regret it, but 20 bucks is 20 bucks, right?

 

[billconner]

Something that produces a little smoke is another way to find leaks in winter.

 

[mike93lx]

The Flir camera is awesome. It's going to be very useful.

For a fan, I think I am going to grab a portable ventilation fan with some ducting. It will be useful to have around anyway and the bigger ones claim some very high flow numbers. I am sure they are overstated, but it should be enough to get a measurable pressure drop to at least evaluate improvements

Something like this
MOUNTO COMBO Heavy Duty Cylinder Fan with 25-foot Vinyl Hose (12inch) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078HNMP52/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Cheap manometers are $50, and that's probably plenty for my needs, but I see Klein has something for about $100 and their is a nicer option on supplyhouse for 160. I'll need to do some looking at that.

Manometer, Professional Air Pressure Meter, Dual-Port Manometer Gas Pressure Tester,12 Selectable Units Differential Pressure Gauge, HVAC Digital Manometer, Gas Pressure Tester ( Included Battery ) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CWQJD6D/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I have been thinking a lot about the quote I got. Like nearly every other project around the house, I am struggling justifying spending the money to have this done with paybacks in the 10-15 year range. If I even do half the job they can, and I expect to be able to do better than that, I'll spend less than a 1/4. It will ****, but if I get it done in the winter or spring, it probably won't be too miserable.

I think I'll start with baffles, then air seal penetrations, then air seal the ducting, then blow in insulation.

 

[Denwood]

We more or less did this (multiple renovations over 15 years) with a few key mistakes along the way.

1. New windows which where double hung dual pane sliders. Mistake. They are leaky in their inherent design. Added acrylic inner storms which work very well. Any doors or windows added in last 5 years have been triple glazed. Windows all crank out awning type which seal much, much better than sliders.

2. Blown in cellulose to walls and attic worked great in walls, not so great in attic. See point 3. Insulating a very leaky attic in zone 7A (- 25 C in winters) is a mistake without air sealing!!

3. Cellulose removed in attic. Balloon framed house attic with plaster and lathe ceiling = massive air leaks into attic. Removed cellulose. Applied 2" closed cell spray foam to air seal. Added back in R80 cellulose. Awesome sauce!

4. Replaced smaller Panasonic spot ERV with larger HRV system: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...rv-retrofit-with-smoke-filter-for-300.505161/

Overall results have been pretty amazing if you consider that natural gas comparative I posted a few back.

I have this manometer which is quite effective, albeit pretty old school. I can pull .04 negative by just firing up the two bath exhaust fans and kitchen hood fan. Anything though will be great just as a comparative. Calculating air exchange without a calibrated exhaust (DIY blower door) though will be a challenge. You would need to take an existing powerful fan, duct it on both sides with say 6-8" feet of straight duct, than use a manometer with pitot probe to take averaging measurements. That would get you a CFM base line.

Or, you can just measure the pressure inside and out with your DIY setup and use it as a comparative as you do work. Just depressurising with a powerful fan will help you find those air leaks quickly.





I do have an older FLIR for iOS which is very effective to troubleshoot cold spots. It's also very useful after spray foam to target leaks for the installer to address...BEFORE they leave the site. I made this mistake on my last renovation...checking for leaks in overhead pot light enclosures after the spray foam guys had left and blown in had been added after. They were not willing to address the problems due to the blown in insulation added after.

 

[mike93lx]

We more or less did this (multiple renovations over 15 years) with a few key mistakes along the way.

1. New windows which where double hung dual pane sliders. Mistake. They are leaky in their inherent design. Added acrylic inner storms which work very well. Any doors or windows added in last 5 years have been triple glazed. Windows all crank out awning type which seal much, much better than sliders.

2. Blown in cellulose to walls and attic worked great in walls, not so great in attic. See point 3. Insulating a very leaky attic in zone 7A (- 25 C in winters) is a mistake without air sealing!!

3. Cellulose removed in attic. Balloon framed house attic with plaster and lathe ceiling = massive air leaks into attic. Removed cellulose. Applied 2" closed cell spray foam to air seal. Added back in R80 cellulose. Awesome sauce!

4. Replaced smaller Panasonic spot ERV with larger HRV system: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...rv-retrofit-with-smoke-filter-for-300.505161/

Overall results have been pretty amazing if you consider that natural gas comparative I posted a few back.

I have this manometer which is quite effective, albeit pretty old school. I can pull .04 negative by just firing up the two bath exhaust fans and kitchen hood fan. Anything though will be great just as a comparative. Calculating air exchange without a calibrated exhaust (DIY blower door) though will be a challenge. You would need to take an existing powerful fan, duct it on both sides with say 6-8" feet of straight duct, than use a manometer with pitot probe to take averaging measurements. That would get you a CFM base line.

Or, you can just measure the pressure inside and out with your DIY setup and use it as a comparative as you do work. Just depressurising with a powerful fan will help you find those air leaks quickly.





I do have an older FLIR for iOS which is very effective to troubleshoot cold spots. It's also very useful after spray foam to target leaks for the installer to address...BEFORE they leave the site.

Thanks for the feedback. I would love to get it tight enough to need an ERV, but I seriously doubt seeing that happening without a lot of drywall coming down

The house is only 2003, so things like replacing windows are very unlikely in the time we will live here. They're currently decent andersen double hung dual panes that according to my thermal camera, aren't wildly leaky.

 

[Denwood]

Most of our house (drywall over plaster and lathe) is still original walls with blown in cellulose. The spray foam in the attics made the largest difference in air leakage, so you will likely get there! I'd say only 10-15% of the outer wall area in the home has been gutted/spray foamed.

The interior magnetic acrylics stop nearly all the air leakage from the operating windows..big difference there. Air pressure "leaking" via the 2'x4' double hung sliders in a 30 mile an hour gust on the North side of our house can be enough to pop the acrylic inner magnetic panels! This is a well maintained slider with decent seals.

 

[mike93lx]

Most of our house (drywall over plaster and lathe) is still original walls with blown in cellulose. The spray foam in the attics made the largest difference in air leakage, so you will likely get there! I'd say only 10-15% of the outer wall area in the home has been gutted/spray foamed.

The interior magnetic acrylics stop nearly all the air leakage from the operating windows..big difference there. Air pressure "leaking" via the 2'x4' double hung sliders in a 30 mile an hour gust on the North side of our house can be enough to pop the acrylic inner magnetic panels! This is a well maintained slider with decent seals.

Can you share a link to the storms you are using?

 

[Denwood]

It was a local company but as far as I can tell, this company is doing similar: https://www.magnetitecanada.com/

There should be somebody (or many companies) doing this stateside. There was a difference of 13 F at the inner surface of a non operating window vs an untreated window with - 10 F outside. There are also images of a small slider (operating window) and the difference is 23 F with and without the panel. They work!

I posted with FLIR thermal images on a very cold day here showing the examples I cited above:

Woody's Works Garage

1/2, GFCI and RCD look to be very similar, although the spec here for current leakage is

www.garagejournal.com

Below image, panel in place:


Below image, panel removed: