Blower Door

[David C. Macy]

I have the Energy Audit scheduled for December 16th. Very busy due to the $149 price.
I already referred them a client to them.

I plan on taking some photos and will post and share my experience after the audit.

I feel I will learn something, get an audit on my house and see how someone that does 2 audits a day conducts there business.

I will not the equipment he uses and anything else beneficial.

[David P. Valley]

Originally Posted by dmacy

I have the Energy Audit scheduled for December 16th. Very busy due to the $149 price.
I already referred them a client to them.

I plan on taking some photos and will post and share my experience after the audit.

I feel I will learn something, get an audit on my house and see how someone that does 2 audits a day conducts there business.

I will not the equipment he uses and anything else beneficial.

David,

Excellent.

Due me a favor and ask about the readings on the instrumentation.

I'm looking forward to your feedback....

[David C. Macy]

Originally Posted by dvalley

David,

Excellent.

Due me a favor and ask about the readings on the instrumentation.

I'm looking forward to your feedback....

I made a note to ask the energy inspector.

If there are any other requests let me know?

[mlehman]

I have a newer blower door from minneapolis blower door. I have the new controller that aloows your to run it in auto. Once everything is sit up properly. It will bring the fan up to 50 pascals and then you see how many cfm your are pulling. I got my training on the blower door by my state agency in Indianaopolis that trains all of the cap agencies in the state to do low income energy audits. Within minute you will know if the house is loose and how loose it is just by reading the cfm reading on the controller.
A perfect home is around 1200 cfm, I did a condo today in chicago that started out at 3300 cfm. This was leaky for a 1000 sq ft home. It wal also 90 years old. I took 28 infrared pics and the same amount of still pics with my other camera. The best part of using the blower door it the ability to show the customer where they need to air seal. I dont use a smoke stick. The back of my hand works just fine. But When I pull out the big gun thats when the customer gets the smile on thier face and thay have no problem writing the check for the service.

[David P. Valley]

Originally Posted by mlehman

I have a newer blower door from minneapolis blower door. I have the new controller that aloows your to run it in auto. Once everything is sit up properly. It will bring the fan up to 50 pascals and then you see how many cfm your are pulling. I got my training on the blower door by my state agency in Indianaopolis that trains all of the cap agencies in the state to do low income energy audits. Within minute you will know if the house is loose and how loose it is just by reading the cfm reading on the controller.
A perfect home is around 1200 cfm, I did a condo today in chicago that started out at 3300 cfm. This was leaky for a 1000 sq ft home. It wal also 90 years old. I took 28 infrared pics and the same amount of still pics with my other camera. The best part of using the blower door it the ability to show the customer where they need to air seal. I dont use a smoke stick. The back of my hand works just fine. But When I pull out the big gun thats when the customer gets the smile on thier face and thay have no problem writing the check for the service.

Matt,

Thanks for sharing. That is the sort of information I was looking for.

[Rodney Misener]

Originally Posted by mlehman

I have a newer blower door from minneapolis blower door. I have the new controller that aloows your to run it in auto. Once everything is sit up properly. It will bring the fan up to 50 pascals and then you see how many cfm your are pulling. I got my training on the blower door by my state agency in Indianaopolis that trains all of the cap agencies in the state to do low income energy audits. Within minute you will know if the house is loose and how loose it is just by reading the cfm reading on the controller.
A perfect home is around 1200 cfm, I did a condo today in chicago that started out at 3300 cfm. This was leaky for a 1000 sq ft home. It wal also 90 years old. I took 28 infrared pics and the same amount of still pics with my other camera. The best part of using the blower door it the ability to show the customer where they need to air seal. I dont use a smoke stick. The back of my hand works just fine. But When I pull out the big gun thats when the customer gets the smile on thier face and thay have no problem writing the check for the service.

Matthew,

To say a perfect home is around 1200 CFM is false. The CFM depends on the square footage of the home, the ring size (a,b,c,d,e) used in the blower door assembly, and the house pressure in pascals. I'm not trying to put you down, just choose your words wisely when talking to customers. I have ran into homes with low CFM, no air exchangers, and ACH lower than 1.5. This poses a health issue due to inadequate airflow in the home. Every home is different.

[mlehman]

Rodney, You are correct. I always give the customer some number to shoot for. I have never seen a home below 1800 cfm. I have seen homes that started out at 6000 cfm and could not get below 2000. But that is a big change in the sealing of the home and alot of money was saved in the long run. It doesnt take alot of training to run a blower door but it takes experience to know what it is telling you. Thats really the point I was trying to make.
I really didnt start justifing my infrared camera until I got the blower door and got trained in energy audits. They do go hand in hand.

[Rodney Misener]

Originally Posted by mlehman

Rodney, You are correct. I always give the customer some number to shoot for. I have never seen a home below 1800 cfm. I have seen homes that started out at 6000 cfm and could not get below 2000. But that is a big change in the sealing of the home and alot of money was saved in the long run. It doesnt take alot of training to run a blower door but it takes experience to know what it is telling you. Thats really the point I was trying to make.
I really didnt start justifing my infrared camera until I got the blower door and got trained in energy audits. They do go hand in hand.

Matthew,

Do you do energy audits for the gov't? I perform Energy Audits for Natural Resources Canada under the EcoEnergy Retrofit Program, as well as EnerGuide for New Houses, and the R-2000 program. I would be interessted to see the differences in program execution of the 2 different countries. If you get a chance sometime send me an email, I'd love to talk further about this. You said you have never seen a home below 1800 CFM. Do you not use different size rings depending on the home characteristics?

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by mlehman

Rodney, You are correct. I always give the customer some number to shoot for. I have never seen a home below 1800 cfm. I have seen homes that started out at 6000 cfm and could not get below 2000. But that is a big change in the sealing of the home and alot of money was saved in the long run. It doesnt take alot of training to run a blower door but it takes experience to know what it is telling you. Thats really the point I was trying to make.
I really didnt start justifing my infrared camera until I got the blower door and got trained in energy audits. They do go hand in hand.

To those doing "energy audits" using IR imaging only: Read and re-read the last statements above until you understand the process and stop fleecing an unknowing public by claiming to do an energy audit!!

Also, a true energy audit should evaluate the heating system and whether replacement/upgrades/improvements of the system provide reasonable savings and/or comfort improvements.

[ldapkus]

Originally Posted by Brian A. MacNeish

To those doing "energy audits" using IR imaging only: Read and re-read the last statements above until you understand the process and stop fleecing an unknowing public by claiming to do an energy audit!!

Also, a true energy audit should evaluate the heating system and whether replacement/upgrades/improvements of the system provide reasonable savings and/or comfort improvements.

What type of camera do you use for your energy audits Brian?

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by dvalley

Matt,

Thanks for sharing. That is the sort of information I was looking for.

David:

A blower door is a quite simple piece of gear as opposed to an IR device. It's the algorithms, coefficients, etc that are beyond most peoples desire to understand where the numbers are generated. There is information to be derived from the generated #'s such as "Is the house full of many small holes or more large ones", "At what level is the house getting tight enough to need special attention for air quality or combustion issues?", etc

Home Energy magazine had quite a few articles on blower door use as far back at the late 80's and through the early 90's. Some may be available for free on their website. It may be worthwhile to purchase an online subscription for a year just to get at these old articles!

[Darren Spencer]

EnergyStar has a great video on YouTube explains all inspection procedures using both Blower Door and IR camera. Also explains readings on blower door and what is needed..etc.

Sorry I do not have link....is an easy find

goto YouTube and search Blower Door.

[Darren Spencer]

Originally Posted by dmacy

I have spoken to several professionals that provide energy inspections and use blower doors in my area.

The normal fee is $350. One company is offering an energy inspection for $149.

I am having them come do my home. I figure for $150 I can watch an expert and ask him a lot of questions and also see where I am losing energy. (I know were my heat losses are I just want to see how the camera and blower door work)

I want to see the blower door and thermal camera they use.

Like to see what a $149.00 report looks like. I charge $360.00 min for an energy audit, maybe $149 for IR camera inspection only and no report.....even then.

Let me know what they do!

[Rodney Misener]

Originally Posted by dspencer1

Like to see what a $149.00 report looks like. I charge $360.00 min for an energy audit, maybe $149 for IR camera inspection only and no report.....even then.

Let me know what they do!

Darren,


The $149 is just what the homeowner pays the auditor. If it is through a gov't endorsed program, the auditor is most likely also paid additional fees per audit by the gov't. That is the way it works in Canada anyways.

[David C. Macy]

Originally Posted by rmisener

Darren,


The $149 is just what the homeowner pays the auditor. If it is through a gov't endorsed program, the auditor is most likely also paid additional fees per audit by the gov't. That is the way it works in Canada anyways.

That is correct. There is a rebate from the utility company $200.
I also receive another 5% from a local paper.

Appointment is a week from tomorrow.