Blower Door Test

As some of you may know I am on the board of directors for our town home association (in fact I'm the VP) and have been for about 15 years. Anyway, at our last bored meeting (yes, I know it is spelled board) we discussed ice dams and what to do about them. As a result the management company that manages things (hence the title "management company") suggested that we offer homeowners a FREE blower door test in an effort to find out where most of the warm air is leaking into the attics and causing ice dams. We have one case where ice dams caused about $10,000 damage to a unit and insurance is not going to cover it. They offer it free because then they, hopefully, will get the job to insulate the home properly.

So the blower door guys came yesterday and this is what they did:
They unfolded and installed a red fabric and plastic "door" in lieu of our door and storm door. This red contraption had an opening in which they installed an large fan facing outward.
They made sure all windows and outside openings were tightly closed and then turned on the fan. The fan was sucking air from inside the house and blowing it outside so that any areas that are not properly insulated or closed off would draw in outside cold air.
The result was that we discovered that our utility room is in fact a cold air wind tunnel, we discovered that even though we thought the flue of our fireplace was closed, it was in fact open and has been for the past 5 or so years. It was also discovered that our attic is not insulated enough. We have about 6 inches of insulation and should have about 18 inches to give an "R" value of 50.

We also discovered that contrary to my belief that our windows were the source of air leaks, they were not and were really good windows. We also discovered that our new entry door and patio door were providing a good barrier to the cold.

Conclusion: This house leaks like a sieve in certain areas and is pretty tight in other areas. We will have to do some insulating in and around the utility room but the attic will have to wait.

And so you see that by placing a fan in the entry door and blowing air outside they can call it a "blower door".