Blower Door Test Formula
What is a blower door test.
Blower door test formula. Blower door sample calculation air infiltration. Leakage type could be indicated as default leakage simply taking no credit for tighter ducts if not default than it. Here are some ways to calculate cfm10. A blower door is a machine used to measure the airtightness of buildings.
A blower door is used to measure the tightness of a building and is often discussed in terms of an ach50 number that many will simply refer to as the blower door. After installation of the complete air distribution system but before installation of insulation and sheet rock. This photo is of a blower door test we performed at my own house using a retrotec blower door. The eqla is also easier to measure especially in windy weather because the measurement is.
It can also be used to measure airflow between building zones to test ductwork airtightness and to help physically locate air leakage sites in the building envelope. Collecting data for a manual resnet one point airtightness test includes a. Once he is done with his walk through your auditor will begin the test. For example if you performed a blower door test and then opened a window to create a 25 square inch hole and repeated the test the estimated eqla for the building will have increased by approximately 25 square inches from the initial test result.
He will systematically move about your home setting up the house for the test. You will notice the 15 passenger van outside the window which is a dead giveaway. Also attached is appendix d of the old manual that shows some test results and those results graphed on log log graph paper. The test requires a few parameters be set to yield accurate results.
There are three primary components to a blower door. And the indicated qn that is the number that the test has to be less than or equal to. A blower door test is often an essential part of a home audit we don t know for sure just yet if it will be part of the free home energy audits promised by the canadian liberal government in oct 2019. Blower door tests are becoming part of many state and provincial mandatory building codes the new bc energy step code in british columbia canada is one example.
Cubic feet per minute of air leakage at 50 pascals of pressure rough in. Adjust for temperature using charts not required if delta t less than 30f adjust for elevation using a formula not required if altitude less than 5 000 ft tec quick guide. 1 a calibrated variable speed fan capable of inducing a range of airflows sufficient to. An older blower door manual shows that the formula for equivalent leakage area 0 2939 x cfm10.
Perform blower door test using the baseline and cfm50 functions.