1.5 Green Home Testing and Documentation

Feature	Tests and audits to document a home’s tightness, and thus energy efficiency are an important part of the green-building process.
Function	It’s a way to document to buyers, lenders and appraisers that a home does not leak energy, and thus will save energy and money over time.
Types	There are several types of onsite testing, or energy audits, as follows:
Blower-door test	Professional energy auditors use blower door tests to help determine a home's airtightness. These are some reasons for establishing the proper building tightness: • Reducing energy consumption due to air leakage • Avoiding moisture condensation problems • Avoiding uncomfortable drafts caused by cold air leaking in from the outdoors • Making sure that the home's air quality is not too contaminated by indoor air pollution. How They Work: A blower door is a powerful fan that mounts into the frame of an exterior door. The fan pulls air out of the house, lowering the air pressure inside. The higher outside air pressure then flows in through all unsealed cracks and openings. The auditors may use a smoke pencil to detect air leaks. These tests determine the air infiltration rate of a building. Blower doors consist of a frame and flexible panel that fit in a doorway, a variable-speed fan, a pressure gauge to measure the pressure differences inside and outside the home, and an airflow manometer and hoses for measuring airflow. There are two types of blower doors: calibrated and uncalibrated. It is important that auditors use a calibrated door. This type of blower door has several gauges that measure the amount of air pulled out of the house by the fan. Uncalibrated blower doors can only locate leaks in homes. They provide no method for determining the overall tightness of a building. The calibrated blower door's data allow the auditor to quantify the amount of air leakage and the effectiveness of any air-sealing job. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy)
Duct Blaster Test	A Duct Blaster is used to directly pressure test the duct system for air leaks, much the same way a plumber pressure tests water pipes for leaks. The Duct Blaster fan is first connected to the duct system at the air handler cabinet, or a return grille. After temporarily sealing all remaining registers and grills, the Duct Blaster fan is turned on to force air through all holes and cracks in the ductwork. The fan speed is increased until a standard test pressure is achieved in the duct system. A precise leakage measurement is then made using an airflow and pressure gauge connected to the Duct Blaster system. Estimates of efficiency losses from duct leakage can then be made from the leakage measurements. A theatrical fog machine can be used along with the Duct Blaster to inject a non-toxic fog into the duct system to visually demonstrate the location and extent of leakage in the ductwork. (Source and image: The Energy Conservatory) See Energy Star video on Duct Blaster test See more videos of Duct Blaster tests
Thermographic Inspections	Energy auditors may use thermography—or infrared scanning—to detect thermal defects and air leakage in building envelopes. How They Work: Thermography measures surface temperatures by using infrared video and still cameras. These tools see light that is in the heat spectrum. Images on the video or film record the temperature variations of the building's skin, ranging from white for warm regions to black for cooler areas. The resulting images help the auditor determine whether insulation is needed. They also serve as a quality control tool, to ensure that insulation has been installed correctly. A thermographic inspection is either an interior or exterior survey. The energy auditor decides which method would give the best results under certain weather conditions. Interior scans are more common, because warm air escaping from a building does not always move through the walls in a straight line. Heat loss detected in one area of the outside wall might originate at some other location on the inside of the wall. Also, it is harder to detect temperature differences on the outside surface of the building during windy weather. Because of this difficulty, interior surveys are generally more accurate because they benefit from reduced air movement. Thermographic scans are also commonly used with a blower door test running. The blower door helps exaggerate air leaking through defects in the building shell. Such air leaks appear as black streaks in the infrared camera's viewfinder. Thermography uses specially designed infrared video or still cameras to make images (called thermograms) that show surface heat variations. This technology has a number of applications. Thermograms of electrical systems can detect abnormally hot electrical connections or components. Thermograms of mechanical systems can detect the heat created by excessive friction. Energy auditors use thermography as a tool to help detect heat losses and air leakage in building envelopes. Infrared scanning allows energy auditors to check the effectiveness of insulation in a building's construction. The resulting thermograms help auditors determine whether a building needs insulation and where in the building it should go. Because wet insulation conducts heat faster than dry insulation, thermographic scans of roofs can often detect roof leaks. In addition to using thermography during an energy audit, you should have a scan done before purchasing a house; even new houses can have defects in their thermal envelopes. You may wish to include a clause in the contract requiring a thermographic scan of the house. A thermographic scan performed by a certified technician is usually accurate enough to use as documentation in court proceedings. The energy auditor may use one of several types of infrared sensing devices in an on-site inspection. A spot radiometer (also called a point radiometer) is the simplest. It measures radiation one spot at a time, with a simple meter reading showing the temperature of a given spot. The auditor pans the area with the device and notes the differences in temperature. A thermal line scanner shows radiant temperature viewed along a line. The thermogram shows the line scan superimposed over a picture of the panned area. This process shows temperature variations along the line. The most accurate thermographic inspection device is a thermal imaging camera, which produces a 2-dimensional thermal picture of an area showing heat leakage. Spot radiometers and thermal line scanners do not provide the necessary detail for a complete home energy audit. Infrared film used in a conventional camera is not sensitive enough to detect heat loss. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy)
More	Also, EPA’s Online Household Emissions Calculator