At one time or another, most homeowners have probably experienced a hot bonus room, a moisture problem, or air leaking in (or out) near doors and windows. These are some of the issues I’m looking for when I go into a home to figure out the best ways to improve its comfort and energy efficiency. There are a lot of things I take into account and some useful gadgets at my disposal.  The one tool in my bag of tricks that is both indispensable and raises the most eyebrows from homeowners is the blower door test.  Simply put, a blower door measures the total amount of air leaking into or out of any house (or commercial building), and it is often  the most important piece of equipment that we use.

Since we get so many questions about it every time we take it out of the bag, we thought we’d offer a quick overview and video demonstration here on our blog for anyone interested. (more…)