Air leakage testing

Air leakage testing

Building eValuate can test your building using a combination of blower door testing with a Retrotec blower door and thermal imaging with a Flir B60 thermal imaging camera. We can provide a comprehensive report highlighting areas that require attention and will provide advice on sealing and product retrofitting to improve your buildings comfort and performance.

Building air leakage

Householders and commercial building managers can improve the energy efficiency of most existing and new buildings by simple draught control and weathersealing. Overseas standards and research recognise that the weather proofing or draught sealing of buildings is the most effective method of achieving direct energy savings, whilst maintaining healthy indoor air quality. It is estimated that Australian buildings leak 2–4 times as much air as Northern American or European buildings, suggesting a tremendous opportunity for energy savings in Australia. In Australia, households produce around 20 per cent of our total annual greenhouse gas emissions, of which heating and air-conditioning account for around 38 per cent. Draughts can account for up to 25 per cent of heat loss from a home.

Blower door testing

A blower door is a diagnostic tool designed to measure the air tightness of buildings. A blower door testing system consists of a Retrotec calibrated fan for measuring an airflow rate, a door-panel system, and a pressure-sensing device to measure the air pressure created by the fan flow. The combination of pressure and fan-flow measurements is used to determine the building air tightness.

The fan is used to blow air into (pressurise) or out of the building (depressurise), which creates a pressure difference between inside and outside. This pressure difference forces air through all gaps, holes and penetrations in the building enclosure. The tighter the building (e.g. fewer holes), the less air is needed from the blower door fan to create a change in building pressure.

To compare relative air tightness of buildings, it is useful to normalize measurements for the size of the building. This allows easy comparison of various sized buildings to each other. One of the most common ways to normalize building air tightness is to calculate the number of times per hour the total volume of the enclosure is changed, when the enclosure is subjected to a 50-pascal pressure difference. To calculate air changes per hour, the total volume of the enclosure is required in addition to the CFM50 measurement.

Air leaks are located with a thermal imaging camera and a tailored report is provided to the building owner advising problem areas and solutions. Building eValuate offer a full retrofit building sealing service to our clients.

Thermal images of building air leakage with the buildings depressurised.