Energy Efficiency Experts

Whole House Air Sealing

Sealing our envelope or whole house air sealing is one of the primary goals in the House as System approach.  We also refer to this as making a building tight.

John Tooley asked the room in a workshop I attended “How do you know when a house is tight enough? When you close the front door and the toilet flushes were getting there.” While this anecdote is certainly funny it is meant to illustrate a point. We cannot make our homes too tight.

As with anything in House as a System approach we do not proceed until we figure out how this will affect other systems. As we approach or go beyond the BPI or ASRAE 62.2 or any other ventilation standards we need to mechanically ventilate our space. This will ensure we get the fresh or outside air we need for health and safety. The only way to know and measure this is through Blower Door testing.

During this testing we will also answer the question posed by John Tooley “ Does my House Suck”

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Before any sealing is attempted or done in a home a CAZ test and blower door test needs to be performed to ensure the safety of the occupants. It is critical to know where our ventilation limit standards are and whether or not there is dangerous CO or other gases present. Furthermore sealing a house without proper testing procedure could produce an environment to grow mold and or other funguses. What you don’t know can kill you and other occupants in the household. This is not an option

Click here for Caz Test Page Click here for Blower Door Page

Test In Test out.

Whole house air sealing is usually the first step to a healthy energy efficient home. It is generally fast inexpensive and has immediate benefits. It improves Health and Safety Indoor Air Quality and Energy Efficiency What we are doing is simply looking for leaks in the home or our infiltration and exfiltrartion areas. These can be obvious or not so obvious. We can use our best tools first. Eyes, Ears, Hands, Nose and Brain to locate many holes. Missing weather stripping on doors, holes to outside and more can be found with a visual inspection.

The remedy is to repair the hole or gap and move to the next one.

With our blower door and infrared camera we can take the diagnostics to a much higher level. With the blower door  we are able to find the unknown leaks within the conditioned space.

We want to always approach air ceiling with the areas of most benefit first. If our Garage is connected to our living space we want to start there.  Keeping all the chemicals and gases in our garage and out of our living space is our first goal for safety reasons. An Energy Auditor or Performance Contractor in San Diego California will rarely find basement in a home. If we do we treat much like a garage when possible.

Next we go after the ceiling. One of our biggest opportunities of reducing our load and improving our Indoor Air Quality will come from attending to our ceiling. sofits with electrical and mechanical chase, can lights, pull down attics, attic access, ducting, plumbing, electrical, data cable and media penetrations all can be easily corrected.

We continue with this line of work next to our walls windows and doors.

Whole House Air sealing or Envelope Sealing can have immediate and long term benefits. Knowing where our is coming from and where it is going is critical and how much in the House as a System approach