Is your home feeling drafty as this cooler fall air moves in? Air finds a way to sneak through your home and create unwanted movement. By air sealing, you will not only feel more comfortable in a tightly sealed home; you will also save energy.

There are many techniques to assess the airflow in a home, but none as effective as the blower door. The blower door is temporarily placed in a doorway between your home and the outside – it then uses a fan to control the pressure inside of your home in order to pull air out through the points of leakage. These points are the most important places to seal.

Preparing your home for a blower door test doesn’t require much work on your part:

Step 1: Close all windows

Your windows must be closed to avoid outside air coming in through the opening and altering the blower door’s reading. Air is supposed to come through open windows—the blower door tests for air leaking where it shouldn’t.

Step 2: Open all interior doors

Keeping all interior doors open allows the blower door to depressurize your home as a unit, as if it is one big room.

Step 3: Close all exterior doors

Closing off all exterior doors such as a door to the garage, an attic door, and a door to a screened in porch make sure the blower door is measuring what it should be.

Step 4: Turn off thermostats, air conditioners and fans

After taking care of your windows and doors, the thermostat must be turned down. The blower door sucks air out of your home to create an increase in air movement. If your heater is on, it will increase the amount of air being pulled out. Also, any air conditioners or fans must be turned off for this same reason. You will want to make the inside air as still as possible in order for the blower door to accurately find the areas to seal.

Step 5: Prepare the fireplace

Along with heating and cooling sources, fireplace doors, dampers, and air intake sites must be closed during a blower door test. Basically, anything that pushes or pulls air should be shut off. Also, make sure to either remove the ashes in your fireplace or cover them with damp newspaper. If they are not covered, ashes could end up spewed all over the room!

Preparing for the blower door test is the first step of sealing your home off from unwanted airflow. Our goal is to seal your home like an envelope, with little to no leaks – leaving you in control of all airflow. By using a blower door, we can find the exact points in your home that need to be sealed in order to save you energy and money.