Nature's blower door test

[brenndatomu]

Got my Christmas present today . Played with it for a while, way cool!
So what is the best setting or way to detect heat leaking out of a heated space, (from inside)...say through a ceiling penetration (ceiling fan) or vent (bathroom fan)? Probably easiest from the attic, but can it be done from inside the room?

 

[laynes69]

Air leakage is a tricky thing. It depends on the pressure plains of the home. The highest areas of the home have air leaking to the exterior of the home. An attic would be the easiest place to see these, as well as the exterior of the home. The basement, first and second floor is where we see infiltration with trim, windows, etc. Interior partition walls, duct chaces, electrical boxes, etc. can be paths for air leaving the home. We airsealed the attic, then the basement. I found several pathways in the basement at the center of the house that were chimney's for escaping air. For those, I used inscent sticks.

 

[williaty]

Got my Christmas present today . Played with it for a while, way cool!
So what is the best setting or way to detect heat leaking out of a heated space, (from inside)...say through a ceiling penetration (ceiling fan) or vent (bathroom fan)? Probably easiest from the attic, but can it be done from inside the room?

You can look from either side. What you're looking for is things that are different than the surrounding area. Inside, typically this will mean cold areas, but every one in a while you'll see a massive heat leak to the outside as a hot spot due to all the air moving through it. From the outside, you're looking for cold spots. The most important will be to set the difference between the cold and hot limit for the picture so you have the right amount of contrast to see what you're interested in.

 

[maple1]

Got my Christmas present today . Played with it for a while, way cool!
So what is the best setting or way to detect heat leaking out of a heated space, (from inside)...say through a ceiling penetration (ceiling fan) or vent (bathroom fan)? Probably easiest from the attic, but can it be done from inside the room?

What exactly did you end up getting?

 

[maple1]

I found several pathways in the basement at the center of the house that were chimney's for escaping air. For those, I used inscent sticks.

Can you give an example of what some of those center basement pathways would be? I would expect basement pathways to be more on the exterior of the basement & not the center.

 

[brenndatomu]

What exactly did you end up getting?

Seek

 

[laynes69]

Can you give an example of what some of those center basement pathways would be? I would expect basement pathways to be more on the exterior of the basement & not the center.

We have an old victorian home. Where the beams met the interior walls base, there were openings that could be seen up into the walls. An incense stick confirmed what was happening. A more modern house shouldn't have this.

 

[williaty]

Actually, interior walls being super leaky and functioning like a chimney from the basement up to the attic is still very common. Additionally, you may find electrical or plumbing chases that run basement-to-attic that are completely open as well. It's VERY common to find a giant hole under the lowest bathtube that runs all the way up to the highest place water is used to connect all the supply, drain, and vent piping.

 

[srawlings]

Tonight, we're having gusts of 33 mph out of the east hitting our old home, with temps in the mid 30's. I can walk around in this weather with my seek cam and find leakage pretty easy. My wife came down from upstairs and our bedroom was probably 10 degrees cooler than usual. She said she could smell fresh air. This is from one of the corners of our bedroom. The air was pouring in above and below the trim. You can see the caulk gun and tools that were in the basement about 10 feet from the woodfurnace I set on the carpet. Having the cam, I take advantage of this weather to find trouble spots.
View attachment 170283

Before I read your last entry on Saturday, I was about to ask about the attic. Sorry to hear about the insulation, but good to hear you are back on track!

 

[laynes69]

I went up there and did some investigating. There were a couple of spots that were warmer, bit nothing significant. I did discover the attic hatch is very leaky, and I sealed an interior corner on the outside of our home where the gingerbread molding is at. The attic floor was showing 42 degrees and the flat portion of the roof was 39 degrees. I need to blow in a few more inches of insulation.

 

[williaty]

Those of you who have a Seek Compact (or Compact XR), in the software on your phone, can you lock the span (temperature range) or set the min and max temps for the display manually?

 

[laynes69]

Those of you who have a Seek Compact (or Compact XR), in the software on your phone, can you lock the span (temperature range) or set the min and max temps for the display manually?

Sorry I missed your post. Yeah, you can set an above or below range. It allows you to see these areas in color only, so you can find those leaks.

Hey @brenndatomu , you break out your camera?

 

[brenndatomu]

Hey @brenndatomu , you break out your camera?

Oh yeah! I pretty much verified areas that I already suspected. Except I found out that when I had the walls spray foamed they didn't do above and below the windows...
I did seal up an area in the basement by the electrical entrance tonight...been meaning to do that for a while now...but since trying to heat with the Tundra now I don't have the luxury of extra firepower, unless I wanna fire up another stove...so had to start sealing

 

[laynes69]

Oh yeah! I pretty much verified areas that I already suspected. Except I found out that when I had the walls spray foamed they didn't do above and below the windows...
I did seal up an area in the basement by the electrical entrance tonight...been meaning to do that for a while now...but since trying to heat with the Tundra now I don't have the luxury of extra firepower, unless I wanna fire up another stove...so had to start sealing

Lol yeah. We have over 42 windows on our house and this year we decided to upgrade the curtains in our living rooms. We have 7 windows and an exterior door so we upgraded to blackout curtains that are energy efficient. Wow what a difference!

 

[brenndatomu]

We have those cellular shades, they work good too