The house our Enhanced Carpentry Foundation students are building had its blower door test and passed with flying colours!
The test was done by Angele Heinrichs with Angèle’s Drafting & Design with the Enhanced Carpentry Foundation and Level 4 Carpentry students in attendance. A blower door test determines how airtight a house is under a certain pressure. It involves blocking an open door and using a fan to shift the pressure within the house and determine where any air is being pulled in. Drafts are common around windows and electrical outlets on the outside walls of the house.
In BC, new builds need to meet certain energy requirements, including air tightness. Under the energy code, a house is allowed to have up to 2.5 air changes per hour under a certain load. This means the total volume of air within the house is allowed to exchange 2.5 times that volume per hour through leakage. When a house is especially drafty, it’s because it’s not airtight and the air exchanges can be far more than 2.5 times in an hour.
The results of the blower door test showed that the house NLC students are building is so airtight that at the midway point in construction, it only exchanges 0.65 of the total volume of air in the house. This means the house will keep heat in during the winter and cool air in during the summer even better than the typical home.
Way to smash that goal, folks!
To learn more about this program, visit out Enhanced Carpentry Foundation page.