Basement in Florida? Why Mold Took 20 Years to Fail this House...

A very cool client of ours named Niko came to us with a wildly different home issue- a finished basement. In Florida. That's vented to the outdoors. Watch us tour the home being renovated with Tony Gomes, my Tampa go-to-guy for advanced diagnostics on existing homes. We explore how it's possible that mold was held at bay for 20 years, until Niko did a 'good' thing and replaced an old HVAC system with a VRF (variable capacity) heat pump.

Find the brilliant Tony Gomes and Faraday Energy in Tampa Bay at: https://faradayenergy.com/

Test your home for airborne mold with this easy kit: https://GotMold.com

Roasting the Home HVAC Industry on National TV: Technicians vs. Mechanics

HVAC technicians will someday be the masters of the science of homes, but right now it's not looking too hot. Hear from Jim Bergmann, one of the world's HVAC legends, why most HVAC installs are wrong from the minute the load calculations are started using Manual J, Manual S, and Manual D without using a blower door first.

Watch the show at https://HomeDiagnosis.tv

Support our work changing the building industry: http://Patreon.com/HomeDiagnosisTV

Start testing your HVAC installs with: https://measurequick.com/

Get your blower door at: https://www.trutechtools.com/system-blower-doors-and-duct-testers.html

4 Year Old Tests Home Air Leakage

My daughter can find out whether your house will perform well or not- but I got to be her first client. She runs our Retrotec 5000 up to 50Pa and shows off how awesomely airtight our family's forever home will be for the next 100 years.

Get the book on testing homes: https://buildingperformanceworkshop.com/homeperformancediagnosticsbook

See more about the inner airtightness system: https://foursevenfive.com

More about blower door systems: https://retrotec.com

Testing the Air Handler Cabinet Leakage

Mastermind student Treondras and I isolated the air leakage built into my Mitsubishi heat pump’s air handler cabinet using a Retrotec Duc Tester 300 and DM-32 gauge. Turns out I made the right decision with Mitsubishi! Their 5 cfm at 25 Pa beats Neil Comparetto’s 6 cfm record. Good job guys.

Bubble Experiment with a Blower Door

To try and seal the last nasty little leaks in the Mento 3000 roof membrane, Corbett and his Dad try an experiment using soapy water and a flipped-around Retrotec blower door.

How the rain screen was installed: https://youtu.be/ZTfVb9NXAOc

How the Mento 3000 was installed: https://youtu.be/hOh28nYrCzI

Learn more at: http://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead

Houses That 'Breathe'

'Home Diagnosis' TV hosts Grace and Corbett Lunsford quickly explain why it's a mistake to avoid air sealing homes. Homes DO need to 'breathe', but not through gaps and cracks we leave in the enclosure. More at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv

Become a member and help make this show: https://Patreon.com/HomeDiagnosisTV

Using Infrared to Find Holes in Your House

Corbett Lunsford loves infrared cameras (he has six of them, including this FLIR One Pro) but they're not the whole story. Pair your diagnostic tools to be a mastermind of home performance.

Learn more at http://HomePerformance.training

TOOL REVIEW: DG-1000 from Energy Conservatory and Minneapolis Blower Door

Corbett gives a crash course in the TEC’s DG-1000 used with Minneapolis Blower Door equipment (including the Duct Blaster, TruFlow Plate, and Exhaust Fan Flow Meter). TEC took away a few features like Equivalent Leakage Area estimation, but added the Tubing Assistant and firmware updating, which could endlessly add features based on user feedback.

DEAR CORBETT: Multifamily Blower Door Testing Nuances

Good day Corbett,

I wanted to let you know, that I really enjoy your approach to the whole building science and your building performance workshop website. I am relatively new as a Resnet Rater and the county where I live is Collier County in Florida.

They recently adopted the new code standard set by the state. My question relates to multifamily condo units. I have a client that did renovations to a 2,500 sq. ft. penthouse condo and the front door to the unit is I a common area. The county wants them to perform a blower door test in order to obtain their certificate of occupancy.

I realize this would be a compartmentalize test, since I can only have access to the unit they renovated for their client. Knowing that I will encounter not only leakage to outside but also internal leakage between units. I was wondering what the best approach would be to ensure a successful test. Collier County requires between 3 ach and 7 ach for a test to pass code.

Any information would be appreciated. Thanking you in advance.

Best Regards,
Norm Giguere
www.blowerdoorenergyexperts.com

---

Dear Norm-

Thanks for your question, it's a good one! First off, you should be fine if they did a good job with the renovations- 7 ACH50 is not terribly hard to achieve.

When you set up your blower door at the front door of the condo, you'll blow air out into the common hallway, so you want to make sure all possible windows/doors in that hallway are open to the outdoors. Use the emergency exits if necessary (make sure maintenance knows what you're up to).

You'll be testing the condo's leakage to everything outside of it, including the downstairs unit, but that's intended. They really will have air leaking between the two condos, if there are leakage pathways, and you want to be testing for that and including it in your blower door test result.

Ask your code official if they want the result to pass the residential code or commercial code, because you have to test at 75 Pa in commercial. I always advise doing a multipoint test (get the flows on at least two pressures, like 25 Pa and 50 Pa) so you can extrapolate the 75 Pa if anyone ever wants it in the future. Saves you a trip.

AS AN ADDED BONUS, consider doing a Zonal Pressure Test on the unit downstairs, to see how much the blower door is affecting it. Always nice to have more data than you need.

Happy Testing,
Corbett

Tiny House Blower Door Test: #TinyLab Test Series #1

Watch as Corbett and Grace test their airsealing work on the Tiny Lab with a Retrotec blower door! They fire up the new Model 5000 fan and find that the house has approximately 160 CFM@50 of air leakage, which is 4.7 ACH50 and 0.14 CFM per sq. ft. of enclosure surface area- and that's with stupid tarps over the window holes! We're going to test again when the windows are in.

Thanks to Julie Tolliver of Energy Fitness for Homes for the idea, to Retrotec for making awesome equipment, to 475 High Performance Building Supply for supplying America with awesome airsealing kits, and to Hewlett-Packard for creating awesome video editing stations that we work on every day.

PODCAST #55 AIR LEAKAGE LOVE AFFAIR: Colin Genge on All Things Blower Door and Duct Testing

Today we talk with Colin Genge, founder and CEO of Retrotec, about the history of air leakage testing, how the tests really work (and what they doesn't actually test), and using home performance diagnostic techniques for playing competitive poker.

To download this episode or hear more, subscribe in iTunes or visit BuildingPerformancePodcast.com