How a Blower Door Test Can Help Improve Your Home Comfort and Indoor Air Quality

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Has your older Maine home been a bit drafty lately, or have you noticed an increase in dust throughout your home? Or maybe you’ve realized that your new home is costing you more than you estimated for utility costs, and your heating and cooling equipment are struggling to keep you comfortable. These are all signs that your Maine home is full of air leaks. 

Regardless of what is causing you to take notice of the air leaks in your home, you probably want to resolve the issue, and residential air leakage testing can be a great help. Blower door tests are the industry standard when it comes to whole-house air leakage tests, and they’re used to resolve home air leakage rates that are too high for optimum comfort and efficiency. Here is what you need to know about how they work and how you can benefit.

What Is a Blower Door Test and How Does it Work?

The blower door test was invented in Sweden in the ’70s and had shown up in American homes by 1979. The goal of a blower door test is to provide a reading of the total air leakage throughout a building, and this is done by attaching a large fan to an exterior door with a special pressure gauge device attached. 

A blower door is temporarily attached to a home using an airtight skirt made of a plastic material, then all other exterior doors and windows must be shut, while interior doors remain open. Once the set-up is complete, your blower door technician will turn the fan on to create a negative pressure inside the home (the fan blows the air out, not in). 

After a few adjustments to complete the pressure gauge readings, the blower door test is complete and your blower door technician will be able to assist you in understanding the findings!

Understanding Blower Door Test Measurements

When a blower door fan creates a negative pressure within your home, outside air is pulled into your living space through whatever pathways it can find. With all of your outside windows and doors shut, this only leaves tiny, hard-to-reach, and often invisible air leaks for outside air to travel through. At this point, the pressure gauge is measuring:

  • If your home is airtight enough to reach 50 pascals

  • How many times the air in your home is replaced with outside air (Air Changes per Hour, or ACH)

  • The resulting air leakage in Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM)

  • How much air infiltrates your home naturally, without the blower door

These measurements are used to understand how air moves freely into and out of your home. So, how can an experienced home performance contractor like Evergreen Home Performance use the results of your blower door test?

What Happens Next?

A blower door test is all a part of a greater home diagnostic service, called an energy audit, and the data is used to select the measures needed to increase the overall comfort and efficiency of your living space. Your Evergreen Home Performance Energy Advisor can utilize infrared thermal imaging during the test to help locate the air leakage locations. Then, when your Evergreen technician crew arrives to air seal, they seal them up until your home is as airtight as possible. This is called air sealing

Air sealing provides you with greater control over your indoor temperatures, and the blower door test data helps determine how much ventilation your home needs to keep it safe and healthy. Usually, existing home ventilation equipment (like range hoods and bathroom fans) can be optimized to do the job.

What’s more, the same infrared imaging can be used to locate areas of poor insulation. Replacing outdated or damaged insulation can increase the overall effectiveness of your home improvement project, and should be completed alongside air sealing. 

With proper air sealing  and insulation, your Maine home will be:

  • More comfortable

  • Healthier to live in

  • Less expensive to heat and cool 

  • Less drafty

Want to keep Maine’s unpredictable outside air away from your comfortable and healthy home? Schedule an energy consult with Evergreen at or get in touch here.

Is your home drafty and full of air leaks?

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We needed basement encapsulation to stop moisture coming up into the house from our regularly flooding basement. We had mold growing on windowsills and furniture. All the staff were friendly, respectful of our home, and easy to work with. Humidity has gone from 70% down to 40% and mold has not grown back after two months. Very grateful.

Sarah C.

Belfast

The Evergreen crew who installed insulation in my attic were fantastic! They were very professional, worked exceedingly hard, and they did an excellent job. They were very pleasant and friendly to be around. They cleaned up beautifully after each work day, and left my home in great shape on when they walked out the door for the last time. I can't believe they were able to accomplish all that they did with heat soaring into the 80s and 90s. It was pretty unbearable up there! They have my highest praise and my gratitude.

Cynthia F.

South Portland

I would recommend Evergreen wholeheartedly because of their professionalism, their follow through, and thoughtful project planning.

Jennifer A

The Evergreen crew from initial inception to installation were professional, on time, and left our place spotless. The end result was exceptional.

John Brown

Evergreen did a fantastic job insulating our 1930's home. The onsite team was professional, clean, and really just a joy to interact with throughout the process. A blower test at the end showed a significant decrease in air leakage. I highly recommend Evergreen.

Kristen H.

South Portland

Our basement was the eyesore of the house. I wanted to make improvements, but first needed to make structural, insulating and moisture mitigation improvements. Evergreen was professional and competent in taking on a complex project of not only encapsulation and insulation of basement and crawlspace, but completed needed improvements to the structural integrity of the wood floor platform above a crawlspace and brought in a concrete contractor to pour where there was once a rotting, tiered wood platform - replacing that area with a more functional and tight tiered concrete area.

Duane B.

East Boothbay

We had Evergreen energy do blow-in cellulose. I was very happy with the result. They tested with blower-door before and after. House is now MUCH warmer. Also, in the time since when I've had to open walls for various access, I've been impressed with how they got the insulation packed in everywhere. I'd use them again.

Noah

Peaks Island

Evergreen is a terrific company to deal with. Polite and efficient crews, meeting deadlines and major reduction in our heat bills. They corrected a lot of issues we suffered from doing work with a shoddy building contractor. We would recommend them to anyone.

Mary Carey

Great team!

George S.

Bath

In the final stages of selling our home, and with a closing date set, an inspection came across an unanticipated issue in our attic. We quickly called in contractors, but nobody was able to identify the source of the problem. Then we thought of Evergreen. Brian Robinson was on site the next morning and immediately identified the source (a faulty roofing job completed three years earlier which had effectively sealed up portions of the ridge vent and restricted air flow - not easily visible with a quick inspection).

Robin McIntosh

Camden

Awesome company. It was a few years ago that they did the audit and then we commissioned them to do the work. We subsequently sold our house and moved to South Africa, but their level of service and expertise will live on.

Odette Brown

The Evergreen Team did a fabulous job, well exceeding our expectations, In just over a week they transformed our very drafty, noisy 213 year old house into a snug, draft-free, quiet haven with warm floors! The team was prompt, did everything they said they'd do and more. We are thrilled!

Trudy M.

Bridgton

This team of individuals was professional at all times. They set up barriers that kept the dust at a minimum. They conducted an air flow audit and cut the draft circulation from the outside in half by sealing cracks. They hauled out the old insulation and replaced it with blown in insulation with an R - 60 Value. They also did the rebate paperwork so that I could get my $1500.00 rebate from the state of Maine. I highly recommend Evergreen Home Performance!

Daniel B.

Rockland

From start to finish, our experience was incredible. Justin was extremely helpful. The crew was fast, friendly, and efficient. And most importantly, our home is WAY warmer and our heating is less costly. I'd highly recommend evergreen to anyone looking to upgrade their home!

John S.

South Portland

Evergreen listened and produced a thoughtful evaluation, proposal and comprehensive plan for our attic and basement. They exhibited excellent workmanship, teamwork, and came back as planned after the completion of the job to test the outcomes. Their overall performance as insulation and home improvement contractors is truly outstanding and we highly recommend them.

Susan S.

Saco

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