Hey Ed, How Do We Measure Infiltration Into a House?
In This Edition of “Hey Ed,” Ed Talks About Infiltration Into a House
Hey Ed, how do we measure infiltration into a house? Infiltration into a house is something that can be addressed in several ways and utilized in different ways. When we're doing a load calculation, knowing how leaky the houses are gives us a better load calc. There are ways that we can estimate it based off of visuals, but whenever it comes to any metric, they can be measured so why not measure it? The device that we measure the infiltration into a house is something called a blower door. If it's not something you're familiar with, I'm not in the limited amount of time I have for these clips to explain it to you. That would be something to be in your best interest to Google. But one of the things I do want to point out and this comes directly from a friend of mine who happens to own one of the companies that manufactures this equipment. The leakage that's measured with a blower door is not an exact or precise measurement of the infiltration into a house. It gives us a good estimate, but it is not nearly as accurate with the results that it produces as a lot of the other testing that is used and is very accurate in our industry. And that's the way I see it.
Ed Janowiak is the Manager of HVAC Design Education at ACCA.
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