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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Very easy process, start to finish.  Friendly, professional, and really know their stuff.  They made some improvements to our condo and we were very happy with how it played out.  Would definitely recommend them.

Clayton Eames

We couldn't be more pleased with the easy, professional, high-value service from Evergreen. Having purchased an older home that had been in our family for generations, we needed multiple upgrades, including insulation throughout. Evergreen insulated our attic with blown-in cellulose, built a new, super-insulated attic hatch, sealed off the old one (which was just a piece of plywood in a closet ceiling), and also talked us through our best options to upgrade our heating system given the plans we have to add onto the house.

Tom G.

South Thomaston

A thorough inspection of our (older) house and its energy needs. Competent and personable work crew.

Jacob Watson

Evergreen is the "go-to" company for improving the efficiency of your home. There are others to choose from but none so effective, honest, and capable as Evergreen. They did a great quantity of dense packing cellulose to improve our home (both for energy efficiency and for sound insulation) and it was totally successful. They are on-time, helpful, and caring. They clean up to a level that can't be over emphasized. This was the second time we employed them and we'd use them again if the opportunity came. You'll not be sorry to select Evergreen.

Dirk F.

Belfast

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

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

First we have Evergreen do a BIG project worth about $20K (windows, basement, insulate & rebuild an entire wall, a door, attics, and air sealing). They were so great we had them come back later when we decided we did want to do our other door. They are professional and do great work. They take care of your home and are trustworthy, and on top of all that friendly! I highly recommend you call them!

Garreth C Debiegun

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

The Evergreen Team did a fabulous job and was very tuned and responsive to the particular needs we had. The job was done right on budget and we are thrilled with the improved warmth and energy efficiency.

Ira M.

Rockland

We had Evergreen come out to our tiny old (100+ year old) house to see what they would recommend for decreasing our carbon footprint, saving money, and increasing our comfort in the cold season. Richard and Bryan were great to work with, patiently answering our many questions and walking us through multiple options. We could only afford to tackle a few areas this year; we ended up replacing some windows and having them weatherize the entire house.

Alan M.

Falmouth

Evergreen Home Performance shows its expertise from start to finish. Evergreen did three house projects in winter/spring/summer 2020 for me, attic insulation, crawl space under a porch insulation, and basement foam/vapor barrier. From my initial discussion with Bryan, I understood the reasons for choosing different types of insulation, the associated costs, and time estimates. Evergreen scheduled in advance, came when they said they would, and the crews were highly professional in their work and demeanor.

Iris S.

Portland

Greetings one and all! I am writing to express my gratitude to all involved in my insulation project.  From start to finish, I appreciate the universal theme which was maintained by each and every one of you, to ensure that my home was insulated and protected from freezing pipes as if it was your home. Andrea, thanks for helping me navigate my way to the project. Nate, thanks for the thorough initial assessment and the time you took to explain this project to me, step by step. Brian, thanks for setting up my project - so happy

Michele

The folks at Evergreen did a great job fixing a rather major insulation problem in my house, which they helped identify with a great audit. When the work began, they were thorough, upbeat, and -- dare I say it -- efficient. I strongly recommend them.

Michael Williams

Evergreen did everything they said they would and more. I actually don't mind going into the basement now since they sealed it. The air quality in the house is noticeably better and it's warmer in the winter. We can even store clothing down there where before, whatever was in there would mildew. Even the spider population declined! I used to vacuum so many of them from the corners of the ceilings in the house. Not any more!

Loriel Van Dusen

Several years ago Brian Robinson evaluated the crawl space at my summer home on Islesboro where I knew moisture was becoming a problem. I had done quite a bit of work in the space many years prior with mixed results. When Brian offered some suggestions, they were ideas that incorporated work previously done, and would be a relatively low cost effort to improve the situation. He offered this advice over several phone conversations of some length, informally, and at no charge.

Cliff R.

Islesboro

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