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Author	Comments
Thomas Kasper Posted: Mar 21, 2007 07:36 PM	Blower door Is anyone using the blower door? I am considering buying one. How effective is it? How often do you use it? Thanks
Posted: Mar 22, 2007 12:23 AM	I think it would be a really good tool for before and after comparison and peace of mind for people who have just made the investment. They can see the difference it made instantly and not have to wait for their next utility bill or heating season. The problem I see is you will often be wasting your time because a lot of people change their mind when they see the price of the foam and you did the demonstration/test for nothing. Or you do that test and then they get joe shmo the foamer to do it for half what you bid. Otherwise I think it would be a nice addition to the estimate "tools" that ride in the truck with me everyday. Tim Granite State Spray Foam Co.
philip mullins Posted: Mar 22, 2007 09:21 PM	blower door? please elaborate. tx
Thomas Kasper Posted: Mar 22, 2007 09:44 PM	The blower door is basically a fan you put in the entry door of a house.(you have to seal it off) After you get it hooked up you turn on the fan and it will pressurize the house. You then look where the air is leaking out throughout the house. I think people use a "smoke stick" and go around the house hold the "smoke stick" to the area where it is thought the air passing through the house. You will be able to see the smoke going out the air leaks. Areas to check would be rim joist, windows, doors, fireplaces, attic, walls. The blower door has been around for a while but I don't think it's used very often.
Posted: Mar 22, 2007 10:18 PM	They can also put some sort of device that determines that actual air flow (leakage) in cfm (cubic feet per minute). They can then rate the house on a scale. They use this method for energy audits etc. My house when we bought it received a D- in this category! It was so bad he was almost unable to get a reading. He had to turn the fan up on "WOW" to get it to pressurize. Tim Granite State Spray Foam Co.
Posted: Mar 23, 2007 11:26 PM	I would think having a door blower to verify the tightness of a building after spraying it would be a good tool to have and for spray foam companies it would a part of the package. Just spraying a building dose'nt really give a client any tangleable benefit at that point time. Most first time users of foam insulation are really probably hoping that they will save money long term from the extra investment over insulation types. If you can tell a client at the time of quoting that you do door blower testing and that they will be able to reduce their heating/cooling system accordingly, this would alleviate some of apprehesion in choosing foam insulation how many hvac companies actually do a door blower test to see how tight a building is, rather than just providing the average system to suit that size building, because all buildings are different.
Posted: Mar 27, 2007 02:09 PM	This is something I have been interested in as well, except I have considered taking it a step further. There are several places that I have seen around the nation offer Energy Rater training. You can find a lot of info about becoming an Energy Rater on www.resnet.us On their certified Energy Rater list I see several insulation companies that offer this service. The cost of training doesn't seem that unreasonable, and outside of purchasing the Blower door equipment, and perhaps an infrared camera, it doesn't appear that it is a costly venture to start this service. Sounds like the training provides a lot valuable info on making a home more energy effiecient, and also how to properly size HVAC equipment. I can't speak from experience but I would think providing extra services such as this would be a helpful way to promote the energy effieciency of sprayfoam.
Luke Kujacznski Posted: Mar 27, 2007 08:53 PM	When I first started my company I thought the same thing you guys do and that is that a blower door and IR camera would be a great addition to a foam company, I was we had some clients who loved it and ever did some testing for other companies on the side. But, but most customers who we offered this service to thought we were charging a premium for. We were not, on goal was to offer this testing as a service to our customers free of charge we they used us for their insulation. The problem was that we had a very formal bid, terms and guarentee, so we were often shopped and lost a lot of jobs for offer a free service. We stopped offering the testing and our closing rate went up about 40%, go figure. Long and short I think it is a great idea, but if you have a lot of competition you will lose work because of it. Why, consumers logic is that if you can offer this type of service at the going rate, you could omit the service and do the job for them for a lot less? Make sense, no but how often do consumers make sense. :-)

Author

Comments

Thomas Kasper

Posted: Mar 21, 2007 07:36 PM

Blower door

Is anyone using the blower door? I am considering buying one. How effective is it? How often do you use it?
Thanks

Posted: Mar 22, 2007 12:23 AM

I think it would be a really good tool for before and after comparison and peace of mind for people who have just made the investment. They can see the difference it made instantly and not have to wait for their next utility bill or heating season. The problem I see is you will often be wasting your time because a lot of people change their mind when they see the price of the foam and you did the demonstration/test for nothing. Or you do that test and then they get joe shmo the foamer to do it for half what you bid.

Otherwise I think it would be a nice addition to the estimate "tools" that ride in the truck with me everyday.

Tim
Granite State Spray Foam Co.

philip mullins

Posted: Mar 22, 2007 09:21 PM

blower door? please elaborate. tx

Thomas Kasper

Posted: Mar 22, 2007 09:44 PM

The blower door is basically a fan you put in the entry door of a house.(you have to seal it off) After you get it hooked up you turn on the fan and it will pressurize the house. You then look where the air is leaking out throughout the house. I think people use a "smoke stick" and go around the house hold the "smoke stick" to the area where it is thought the air passing through the house. You will be able to see the smoke going out the air leaks. Areas to check would be rim joist, windows, doors, fireplaces, attic, walls.

The blower door has been around for a while but I don't think it's used very often.

Posted: Mar 22, 2007 10:18 PM

They can also put some sort of device that determines that actual air flow (leakage) in cfm (cubic feet per minute). They can then rate the house on a scale. They use this method for energy audits etc. My house when we bought it received a D- in this category! It was so bad he was almost unable to get a reading. He had to turn the fan up on "WOW" to get it to pressurize.

Tim
Granite State Spray Foam Co.

Posted: Mar 23, 2007 11:26 PM

I would think having a door blower to verify the tightness of a building after spraying it would be a good tool to have and for spray foam companies it would a part of the package.

Just spraying a building dose'nt really give a client any tangleable benefit at that point time. Most first time users of foam insulation are really probably hoping that they will save money long term from the extra investment over insulation types.

If you can tell a client at the time of quoting that you do door blower testing and that they will be able to reduce their heating/cooling system accordingly, this would alleviate some of apprehesion in choosing foam insulation

how many hvac companies actually do a door blower test to see how tight a building is, rather than just providing the average system to suit that size building, because all buildings are different.

Posted: Mar 27, 2007 02:09 PM

This is something I have been interested in as well, except I have considered taking it a step further. There are several places that I have seen around the nation offer Energy Rater training. You can find a lot of info about becoming an Energy Rater on www.resnet.us On their certified Energy Rater list I see several insulation companies that offer this service. The cost of training doesn't seem that unreasonable, and outside of purchasing the Blower door equipment, and perhaps an infrared camera, it doesn't appear that it is a costly venture to start this service. Sounds like the training provides a lot valuable info on making a home more energy effiecient, and also how to properly size HVAC equipment. I can't speak from experience but I would think providing extra services such as this would be a helpful way to promote the energy effieciency of sprayfoam.

Luke Kujacznski

Posted: Mar 27, 2007 08:53 PM

When I first started my company I thought the same thing you guys do and that is that a blower door and IR camera would be a great addition to a foam company, I was we had some clients who loved it and ever did some testing for other companies on the side. But, but most customers who we offered this service to thought we were charging a premium for. We were not, on goal was to offer this testing as a service to our customers free of charge we they used us for their insulation. The problem was that we had a very formal bid, terms and guarentee, so we were often shopped and lost a lot of jobs for offer a free service. We stopped offering the testing and our closing rate went up about 40%, go figure. Long and short I think it is a great idea, but if you have a lot of competition you will lose work because of it. Why, consumers logic is that if you can offer this type of service at the going rate, you could omit the service and do the job for them for a lot less? Make sense, no but how often do consumers make sense. :-)

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