Blower Door Negitave Pressure Equipment Questions.

kc brick layer

I am a waterproofing and restoration contractor. i have lots of customers wanting me to caulk and seal up there houses to save energy. I've seen the blower door equipment and using the smoke stick to find the air leaks and i am very interested in this. Im not interested in being a Home Energy Rater. I guess i would have to still learn what the numbers and such mean to not seal the house to tight. But heres my question... You can also use these in reverse pressurizing the building. I have many small offices and houses where i have tough times finding where the water is entering. I sometimes spend days water testing to reproduce a leak. Sometimes it could be a second story window producing leaks in a 1st floor window. By using the equipent in reverse would i thereticly (sp) be able to use the infered camera to scan the outside and find every possible leak? This equipment is new to me and i just want some input.

bdoles

Part of my services includes infrared thermal imaging. In many instances I need to re-create a leak, mainly because the best way to find a leak using infrared, is by making it an active leak. Remember infrared is detecting temperature differences, to be effective the delta T needs to be roughly 20 degrees or so. What your wanting to do with the blower door, can possibly be done, but conditions need to be right. It's all about temperature.

This is equipment (blower door/infrared camera/training) is not cheap by any means.

Here is a picture showing missing insulation around a bathroom exhaust.

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Brian
Atlanta Remodeling
Licensed Contractor - Georgia

kc brick layer

i understand i wouldnt be using it in a way it was designed for but if i were to have the heat turned extremly up or the ac depending on outside temp could this be possible in the way i would use it? i would also use it to find air leaks in the home with a smoke stick. i wouldnt be using it to find missing insulation or anything like that.

Aiken Colon

You can use thermal imaging for not only the air leaks, but also water penatration and mold remediation. As well as termite and rodent detection. For an energy star rated home it requires an IR inspection and an IR inspection utilizing 50 pascals of negative pressure via a blower door system.

I have plumbing customers that use it to diagnose leaks and detect lines running below ground, and in walls. You can also detect blockage in lines in both residential and commercial applications.

We have electricians that use it for (3 phase) Power distribution, Fuse boxes, Cables & connections, Relays/Switches, Insulators, Capacitors, Circuit breakers, Controllers, Transfors, Motor, and Battery bank diagnostics. Some common thermal variations in electrical applications are; unbalanced loads, harmonics (3rd harmonic current in Neutral), overloaded systems/excessive current, loose or corroded connections increased resistance in the circuit (typically one side of components heats up), insulation failure, component failure, wiring mistakes, underspecified components (like fuses) would heat up on both side of the fuse.

JJ

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Bosch Tools
Blower Door
Knipex
Energy Auditing