What is Air Tightness Testing?
Air Tightness Testing is a clever way to detect how air escapes from your property unintentionally through gaps or cracks in floors, exterior walls, ceilings, windows or the roof. It’s also known as Air Pressure Testing or Air Permeability Testing.
Why is Air Tightness Testing important?
If air is escaping from your property too easily, it means it becomes harder to heat in the winter and can even be harder to keep cool in the summer. This results in an increase in consumption to try and keep a consistent temperature inside your property throughout the year.
How is Air Tightness measured?
There are two methods to test how draughty your property is:
Blower Door Testing
Blower Door Testing is the most widely used but can take longer to set up. For PAS2035 air testing, all outlets such as chimneys, doors and windows are temporarily sealed, and a large fan is placed in the doorway to the property. The fan creates a pressure difference between the inside and outside of the property. The amount of air the fan needs to maintain the pressure difference reveals how much air is leaking from the building.
Overview of Blower Door Testing:
Ideal for homeowners or occupants looking to find sources of air leaks so these can be repaired.
Energy assessor will get a broader set of diagnostics and receive greater insight into the building’s air tightness.
Can be more disruptive to occupants while the test takes place.
Often takes longer to complete compared to Pulse Testing.
Pulse Testing
The second method of testing air tightness is via Pulse Testing. A quick burst of pressurised air is released into the property, and the decay of this air is measured in a matter of seconds. This method is a simpler way of assessing air tightness for buildings, and is much more convenient for occupants.
Overview of Pulse Testing:
Great for heavily-occupied buildings as it causes minimal disruption to homeowners or occupants.
Can be completed more quickly than Blower Door Testing.
Provides a clear pass or fail result.
Test is carried out at a lower pressure than Blower Door Testing, putting less pressure on walls, doors, windows and the roof. This means it will produce results under normal pressure conditions.
Unable to produce diagnostics to pinpoint defects in air tightness.
A higher Air Permeability Score means more uncontrolled heat loss and wasted energy.
What can be done to reduce too much air escaping from a property?
Measures can be put in place to reduce the amount of air that is escaping where it shouldn’t, such as insulation, and sealant around windows.
Air Tightness Testing is especially useful to do before implementing a Home Energy Improvement Plan/Whole House Retrofit, as it identifies areas within a property where heat is escaping and often informs efficient ways to create optimal ventilation within a property.
What is Background Ventilation Testing (BVT)?
Using the same test methods as Air Tightness Testing, BVT is designed to check whether a building already has sufficient background ventilation. This test is particularly useful for PAS2035 compliance and is carried out room by room. This test prevents unnecessary ventilation methods being installed where they aren’t needed.
Enquire with us about Background Ventilation Testing
Our Air Tightness Testing
Are you looking to assess how air-tight your property is? Perhaps you’re looking to increase your EPC rating or invest in a Home Energy Improvement Plan. An air tightness score will assess how adequately-ventilated your property is today and will inform the additional ventilation measures that may need to be installed if improvements are made.
Our Pulse Testing is available to homeowners, installers and social housing providers and will provide you with a swift, convenient test that exerts less pressure on your building.
Talk to our team today about Air Tightness Testing at your property