Constructing Your Ideal Home: Blower Door Testing

What exactly is a blower door and how does it help make my home more comfortable and efficient? A blower door is a tool that measures air pressure and flow, along with how much air leakage a home has. Nobody likes to sit in a draft, right? And nobody wants to pay more for heating and cooling than they absolutely have to. That’s why Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods stops air leaks in their tracks by caulking and sealing around windows and low-expanding foam around wiring and plumbing holes. Insulation is important but isn’t enough by itself, so Ideal goes above with air leak prevention steps to make sure the house is sealed.

What does a blower door test tell us?

This test lets us know the house is sealed well so that it is energy-efficient and has good indoor air quality.

How do we use these test results?

The blower door test is one part of the whole picture, which starts with RESNET. RESNET is a recognized national standards-making body for building energy efficiency rating and certification systems in the United States, including HERS® (the Home Energy Rating System). HERS evaluates building plans and conducts on-site inspections, including a blower door test to produce a HERS rating. This score helps project energy usage and is a great marketing tool for Ideal because our minimum standards are much higher than codes call for. Ideal’s only incentive for these tests and improvements comes from the additional quality it adds to your new home.

What can happen if the builder doesn’t do blower door testing?

Air leakage and infiltration of outside air is completely unknown without this test. So, the obvious answer is that if the home isn’t sealed well, there will probably be significant energy loss, which ultimately translates to higher utility costs.

Ideal homes are extremely energy efficient. But if a home is TOO tight, all the indoor air is held inside resulting in higher humidity and lower air quality. In an Ideal home, a mechanical dampener or fresh air filter brings in outdoor clean air and helps exhaust the higher concentrations of volatile compounds. For a home to be truly efficient, it needs that fresh air filtration.

Knowing how leaky the home is helps us make sure that the HVAC system is sized properly, and the fresh air is properly calculated for healthy living. There’s also a duct leakage test to measure how leaky the ductwork is.

How does this testing impact the comfort and efficiency of an Ideal home?

It helps keep indoor air fresh and clean! And it makes sure there won’t be too much humidity or buildup of volatile compounds in your new home.

What’s the long-term impact for Ideal homeowners?

• Utility costs will be lower and heating and cooling usage will be guaranteed for the first year. It’s a return on your investment. 
• As far as code minimums vs. Ideal standards, your savings will be in the thousands of dollars. 
• Higher efficiency and properly sized HVAC systems will last longer. 
• Respiratory health is greatly impacted by air quality, and by using these tests and proper system sizing, the air quality of your new home will be impacted positively for years to come.

Ideal is the only builder in Oklahoma to guarantee your heating and cooling usage on most of our homes.