Air Tight Construction, Blower Door Test Results

March 25, 2015
Green Building | Projects

The homeowners of a new home in Duluth, Minnesota went to our local dealer Heritage Window and Door looking for windows and doors with superior air tightness. The team at Heritage confidently recommended Innotech windows and doors in combination with R-Guard by Prosoco to help meet their aggressive air tightness target for their new 4,000 square foot home .

Once everything was installed, the home underwent a Blower Door Test to measure air leakage. Before we reveal the impressive results, let’s take a look at some comparison points to help interpret the reading:

• The temperate City of Vancouver requires a maximum air leakage rate of 3.5 ACH50
• New home builders in Minnesota routinely achieve 2.5 ACH50
• ENERGY STAR qualified new homes must not exceed 2 ACH50 in Northern Ontario (2.5 ACH50 for Southern and Mid/Eastern Ontario)
• The Canadian R-2000 Program has an airtightness standard of no greater than 1.5 ACH50
• The PassivHaus airtightness standard – a tough standard to achieve – for new builds has a maximum of 0.6 ACH50

The result of the Blower Door Test for this home was 0.26 ACH50 (173 CFM50) – more than half of the PassivHaus standard! Conducted by an independent energy auditing firm, the superior air tightness results are a testament to the building products used in the home. Congratulations to the homeowners for building an air tight home!

For more information on the Blower Door Test, we recommend Green Building Advisor’s articles Blower Door Basics and How Much Air Leakage in Your Home Is Too Much?.

Sources:

1. City of Vancouver
2. Green Building Advisor
3. Natural Resources Canada, ENERGY STAR for New Homes
4. Natural Resources Canada, R-2000 Program
5. PassivHaus Institute