That effective leakage area of 126 inches squared in the first test. Basically like having a large window open full time. Even the second test at 87 inches squared is a window open. Most people never realize how much air the leak on a house. Glad to see you pointing this out for people especially if they have allergies or high energy bills.

@rwood1995

10 ай бұрын

If you had a near perfect leak would you not pass out from lack of oxygen and increased CO2 from respiration?????

I'd also recommend looking at any bath fans, range hoods, and other large wall/ceiling penetrations. The openings may be significantly overcut or the baffles may not be doing their job due to poor installation, wasp nests, etc.

@force311999

Жыл бұрын

also he is sucking down the vent of the hot water tank that may have to be in a sealed closet with combustion air from outside

If you let the fan run for 5 min and then get your IR camera out you would see where all the cold air is coming in. If pressurized the house the smoke puffer would show exactly where the air is leaking out to as well. That would be a neat trick!

at 32:54 It looks like the can lights you have (NHRIC-17QAT) are ICAT, meaning that they are suitable for insulation contact and are airtight (per astm e283). That's probably why you didn't see much of an improvement with the can light covers.

Ive been running residential blower door and duct leakage tests in north carolina as my full time job for the last 3 years. I feel like were in the same boat, my house was built in the 80s and I know there are ways to improve my efficiency. I just need to find the time to address them. I think you did a great job learning how the equipment works and systematically tracking your progress. Starting with the bigger leaks and then looking for the less obvious. One area I might suggest taking a closer look at is where your plumbing penetrations come through from the crawl space. I often find toe kicks on cabinets and vanitys leaking from plumbing that wasn't foam sealed. Fantastic work man!

@Jimie68

Жыл бұрын

You’re so right calab I started do weatherization back in 2008 and than learned about blower door testing and air sealing most of my findings were the plumbing and behind the stove and bathroom area we used the 700 DG i also have been to bpi training and certified I miss going to all the DOE meetings and Conventions

find the largest air leaks and don't worry about the little ones or you might drive yourself nuts. remember a totally sealed house isn't healthy, you want a bit of fresh air. like window trickle vents

Have the house on negative air pressure and use your thermal camera to find leaks

When you remove the attic insulation, 1) use fire-block foam (orange stuff) and 2) literally foam bead every single crack and joint of all the materials. From the perimeter to every butt joint corner of drywall, drywall to wood, hole into wood ( electrical doing into your walls), vent pipes... literally everything. That (especially for cinderblock homes) is enough to eliminate 60-70% of your joint/lighswitch and receptacle infiltrations.

As I think someone else in the comments mentioned, basic expanding foams like that are open cell and not as air tight as you'd expect, and even closed cell foams aren't always very effective when thin. Construction adhesive or even plain old dirt cheap acrylic caulk should be very effective, though. Ideally use an intumescent type (firestop) if you're going to the effort of sealing cable penetrations. Probably worth hunting the low hanging fruit like window and door seals before obsessing over that sort of detail though.

Chris you are very humble person when it comes to learning new things and I think that's why you are such a great Technician. Everybody I work with watched your videos. Thanks for all your hard work. You rule man.

As an electrician, I always reccomend the can light inserts you mentioned to seal can lights. I typically swap to the one piece trim ring/led light that has the foam gasket

@jpcallan97225

Жыл бұрын

Most of these are in lighting catalogs as "IC-Rated" meaning insulation contacting. Absolutely worth the time and money.

That can spray foam is open cell so it allows air flow through it. To make it really tight you need closed cell.

1st Greets from Germany

@Ro4r0508

Жыл бұрын

Only Germans here! Servus

@michih.593

Жыл бұрын

JA Servus Leute 🙂

@grandmasterKOOP

Жыл бұрын

Moin

@sleep0190

Жыл бұрын

tach ✌🏼️

that's incredible you're leaking more air out of your vents than you are directly through a giant 6" hole into your attic when you masked the utility closet

@stevenrogers2448

Жыл бұрын

Yup! Duct leakage is a huge problem. It kills the effectiveness of even the best AC!

I appreciate you allowing us to follow you on this journey to improve your homes energy efficiency! Haha The canned lights covers had me cracking up after the fact 😅 We’re all here for it man! Entertainment nevertheless! 👏

I have 4 cats, and one resembles yours. I've never had a dog that plays fetch, but I have two cats that do. It's really funny because I adopted a brother and sister, and the boy played fetch for 5 months, then one day the sister thought, if my brother can play fetch, I should be able to bas well. She's not as dedicated to it, but still fun. To see if your cat will fetch, ball up a piece of paper, like a cash register tape, and then throw it. If your cat brings it back, you'll know.

Those can lights are called "Old Work" cans installed after the drywall was installed. "New Work" cans would have had brackets going between ceiling joists and installed before the drywall was put up.

Are you going for heat recovery with your heatpump to get fresh air into the house? remember Oxygen is not the problem in a sealed House, it is the Carbondioxide, which makes you feel sleepy. Outside air got like ~400 ppm, at 2000 ppm it is not so good anymore. CA should be pretty close to EU max values of CO2 for indoor.

I can't wait to see the video digging the can lights back out!! Hope it goes better than expecting.

@stevenrogers2448

Жыл бұрын

Why would they need to be dug back out?

You could change your entire canlight fixture(s) with plenum rated fixtures. Those are much more airtight typically because of their fire rating.

I feel your pain! I've got 51 recessed lights in the inside of my house. Can lighting is great for balanced lighting and automation but man its the devil trying to get them sealed up for both draft and DUST control! Great video(s) thank you for taking the time to post.

@throttlebottle5906

Жыл бұрын

if their not IC rated(insulation contact) and all accessible from attic, you may be better off changing them out to sealed IC rated units and seal their flange gasket to the ceiling. it's not a fun job at all. "they'll be listed as "air tight" or similar. generally meant for new construction work, so you'd need full access from the attic side. they may have some remodeler cans that are air tight. that I'm not sure.

The same thing happened to me when I started testing my house... I was energized and put the cart before the horse and just dove into doing things that I thought would make a bigger difference than they did. I should have saved that money to put towards a larger air-sealing overhaul... That's often how these things go, not a bad number overall!

@HVACRVIDEOS

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I know I could have asked everyone for advice but I wanted to learn and film it and it's still an evolving project so I'm sure the final number will improve a bit more... thanks for watching bud!!

for the furnace closet cut another grill on the left side facing the living room to get more return ,get a direct vent furnace with 2 pipe vents and seal off the attic vent completely and ck the dryer vent flap ,they get stuck open from lint

I keep waiting for John Glen or Buzz Aldren to walk in😂. Freaking call NASA. Lol lol

Those Can light covers look like they're more for fire protection and heat/cool loss not necessarily airtight. Because Can lights tend to end up getting cut into Attic spaces that aren't insulated or spaces that are too tight for insulation.

For all the cost and hassle with the can lights, i would've swapped for new retro fit leds that are much flatter and add a 3/8" weather strip foam ring to the light to seal against drywall and allow maintenance with out having to cut out sealant.

Having lived in a super tight house, and been constantly sick, my opinion is "let it leak". Occupants need fresh air. We even tried having an HRV, that thing never worked right, eventually uninstalled it and went back to the "old school", leave a window cracked open at all times.

I've worked for 2 residential HVAC company's that did energy audits for almost every job. Both took good care of clients and employees 👍🏽

The Bosch IDS heat pumps are extremely efficient, super quiet, and technically advanced.

Remove insulation, seal top plates vs sealing outlets, seal mechanical closet. Isolate garage and condition separately with ductless. Furnaces are leaky, ditch it. Seal duct system

I love the music as always! You have your very own style in music curation.

After sealing and caulking, etc., I arranged blower door tests for a couple of clients, all with somewhat larger houses than yours in the pacific northwest . The big air leak surprises were in order of severity: pocket doors; around duct boots and bath fan housings; plumbing penetrations under sinks. Something I've found that is not well covered is heat gain/loss via infrared radiation - check out Low-E window glass and Low-E coatings. Another common sense move is repositioning the condensing unit out of direct sunlight. I couple of books you will find more than helpful in your efforts are: Residential Energy: Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing Buildings by John T Krigger et al., and Insulate and Weatherize: For Energy Efficiency at Home (Taunton's Build Like a Pro) by Bruce Harley . The first one is expensive at about $90.

My Nerdar was going off crazy during this video. I had to take the batteries out to keep watching. Oh wait that means im a nerd too. 🤓 This was a great video. You know we're gonna want more right.

use a condensing furnace and you can seal the mechanical closet as you could with a heatpump

You need to be careful with spray foam and cable insulation. The spray foam will strip the plasticiors from the cable insulation and can cause the cable to fail over a number of years.

@Monkeh616

Жыл бұрын

PU foam should not damage PVC. Polystyrene is the problematic material.

You need to look at the BIG picture.

I have been eagerly waiting for the next video in this series!

Love these videos! Knowledgeable and analytical. Thanks so much for your time and sharing!

You are better off sealing the outlets in the attic, crawlspace and/or basement, if at all possible, to keep the outside air from coming into the walls.

There goes your rock wool sponsorship 😂

Thanks for making this video. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, can’t wait for the next episode.

For the how much attic air question, could you use the temperature difference? Probably not the best time of year due to the relatively low delta between return air and attic air temperature. However, if the return air is 70, the attic air is 50, and the mixed air is 60, then it would be a 50/50 mix, if the mixed air is 65, then it would be 75% return air and 25% attic air.

😆 I got a good chuckle with the math and rant at the end 🤣

Well I'm not a HVAC guy I'm not no home tester but I deal with a lot of new construction and advanced remodels and they have people come in and do that test and so far I've beat them they haven't beat me but it definitely is a unique way of testing a house

I did home sealing for a little and you wanna seal the top plates on both sides throughout the whole home. as for the rockwool covers..... not sure how well they seal airflow but the foam look applied correctly. we used to build custom covers out of foam board with silver backing. of course also make sure to seal the top plates where the wire goes through the wood. what i would also do is tape the boarders of your windows just so you have a baseline leakage number you could look back on to see what's really doable

"Only meant for residential". I've lost count of the number of times great new better/cheaper/faster has started out small and then grew up and ate the lunch of the "big boys". The personal computer is a great example. Mainframes were common in companies, now they're rare.

Wow those electric bills are insane. I get antsy when my electric bill gets to $200, but then again you live in California and I live in Virginia. Also I think that most people have no idea how leaky their houses really are.

If you're looking for a good inverter system, my company installs Carrier Infinity Greenspeeds, which are fully variable, and the Infinity UI is extremely informative and provides all sensor readings in checkout mode and has built on refrigerant charge testing modes. Very efficient and very quiet. The 26 Seer models even have Bluetooth diagnostics

Leaky switches and outlets are a problem we don't have in Germany, solid brick construction for the win ✌️

27:35 I just realized that's a turkey baster and one of those vaporizing pens.

The can light covers are forcing more air through the hole in the closet where the furnace is. My very well have stopped a lot of air around the lights.

And I thought I was the only nut job who use spray foam around the cracks and seams and openings of the electrical outlet box. Including small holes drilled at the upper and lower corners underneath the cover using the orange fire rated spray foam filling up the cavity behind the electrical outlet boxes below and above. All the plumbing pipes and any electrical hole for Romax entering or leaving the house through rim Joyce through the walls underneath sinks and behind dishwashers the gas pipe behind the stove. Even the trim on the floor around the walls specially if you have carpet sometimes the air will pull up from underneath the house where the sheet rock does not meet the floor there’s an air gap put your smoke tester right there and you’ll see 360° around here walls air pulling in and your interior door trim casings.

Hi Chris, I get that you might have expected a bigger number from the covers on the lights, but don’t forget that they will help insulate the lights so that there is less heat transfer through the lights. I don’t think that you wasted your time or money. Looking forward to seeing your ongoing finding with your project.

you forgot to check and seal around all the plumbing penetrations, assuming there not all through a concrete slab. but even so there's likely some leakage around outdoor hose-bib's and maybe still around the concrete if it's sleeved. there's also possibility of failed toilet wax seals(would likely smell it) and bad air admittance valves(if it has any).

This gives me a good idea of where to find/improve the leaks at my place. Thanks. Didn't expect light switches to leak that much, and I know I have leaks at both the tops and bottoms of the walls. No ceiling space to work in here, most of the house it's less than a foot between ceiling and roof, but a fair crawlspace under the house, can just about stand up in some of it, but other places I have to slide through to get to different sections. All split system heat pumps, 5 of them, only 2 working after floods in Feb but they're keeping up with the load.

IT would be wise to check supply and return air to bedrooms with the door closed,that is what makes the house negative and draw air from cracks,not big enough return is always a problem,great video thanks for sharing.

I'd also recommend installing back draft dampers on any exhaust fans in the home.

Something to be aware of when sealing up you're home! Carbon monoxide detector! I knew a family in upstate New York who were in a very drafty house. During the winter I believe it was a gas furnace that malfunctioned!... during the night!... The only reason that they were alive from what we believe was that thank God their house was so drafty!

This was an informative vid.! Thanks. Glad you are using LED recessed lights, less heat. I recall a house we had with reflective silver coated cardboard around the sides of the recessed lighting fixtures. (Was utilized to keep the blown in fiber insulation, away from the hot fixtures, (pre LED days). These rings were right in the crawl space path, easily getting tipped, allowing the insulation to get trapped right next to the hot fixture. (Everything built the cheapest way). Found the conditioned air ducting to the lower level of the house, knocked / blown off. (That low tonnage air unit needed to work extra time, in-order to keep both the house and attic conditioned). (Called the original installation company to correct it. They did, using a bunch of duct tape. 🙃😳

Regarding your disappointment regarding the effectiveness of the can covers, I suspect that the smaller decrease you observed may be due to the law of diminishing returns. The fact that just taping up the drywall holes etc, resulted in a ~25% in leakage, means that each of the other measures you took had less of an effect than if you had made them in isolation. Had you covered the pot lights first, and then taken a measurement, you would have likely seen a greater decrease in leakage.

I love how the blower door tests were simple to use and easy to understand with the app. I did not understand a thing when I watched Bill's videos on his house. Also I'm no expert so I'm not saying what the right way to do the pot light covers is but I think I would have used silicone to glue them down and probably removed the bracket for the electrical box and just had a single hole that is easy to seal for the wire to go into the light. I feel bad that you lost a bunch of money on something that didn't really work.

Once you properly size the return air and supply. Also add a little fresh air ran into the return cavity. Allll that negative pressure will disappear and will no longer have a draw from around cans light fixtures etc. I love your videos

I think the gaskets on the outlets and switches are good enough to avoid having to put foam inside the electrical boxes, but if you're going to put foam inside the box just make sure it's fire resistant or it could be kindling for an electrical fire.

I would recommend getting the recessed light trims that are one piece and have a rubber seal, that should solve your problem.

need to do my house..way to go..

Still you have the windows and seals around the doors as a air leak not counting the wall to floor joints. The can lights your house has lose air via the metal tube that connects the joint box to the can light if possible replace the can lights with surface mount led lights they have a smaller connection box and spray foam insulation in the attic with the fiberglass insulation would help seal the air leaks and keep you cool at a lower electrical cost.

Your hardwood floors are really beautiful. The cost of that floor today would be outrageous expensive. Why would you want to get rid of it? It can be sanded and refinished if there are any bad spots without wearing down any laminate finish. That is solid wood all the way through.

I wasn't expecting the turkey baster with a vape for a smoke machine

As you have always stated stand back and look at the big picture. Check each room for thermal leaks due to poor or missing insulation.

80-20 rule at work (i.e. 20% of the effort gives 80% of the result)

i am really enjoying this. i will give a small word of warning. my father back in the 70es whit crazy sealing up the house. he got it to tight and ended up with a sick house. now granted the house was built back in 1920es it is double plank walls. for several years we fought with him smoking and every one being sick. back in 1998 i had central AC installed in the house and after 1 year of fighting i mad him stop smoking. when i have the AC installed i had a 4 inch fresh air out side intake install. in short you can make a house to tight.

@johnhaller5851

Жыл бұрын

That's what ERV/HERV are for. There is no point to just adding a hole to get fresh air without recovering heat/cooling from exhausted air.

I would of isolated the bedrooms, like you did the garage , to see if there are other hidden issue in those rooms

Sorta tangential, but there are emerging devices for dealing with aerosolized pathogens using far uv. I think the term is upper room UVGI. Previously that was mercury lamp based, but the new stuff is LED based an pretty compact. The Hong Kong government released new air quality regulations in English specifying UVGI fixtures paired with far higher air change requirements. I think Philips makes uv-c fixtures for that purpose. You might have decent positions in the vaulted ceiling area to mount a UVGI fixture.

@wtfux

Жыл бұрын

Are you considering any air treatment devices before/after the heat pump assembly, such as a plasma ionizer? Also, if you a contemplating increased air change speed, one of those thermal recovery devices mounted on the intake/exhaust? I think Mitsubishi makes a small one for light commercial/residential for mounting internally on or near an exterior wall.

You should use your thermo camera to see the temperature difference.

Did you check wall penetrations for sinks in your cabinets ?

@moonlightacmaintenance3232

Жыл бұрын

So what is acceptable? I’m reading that you’re pretty close to acceptable at the point you left off at. Can’t be to air tight the neighbors will refer to y’all as the purple family.

I can see the differences in heating and cooling first hand between a house built in the late 90's (my Parent's place which was built in 1998) and a house built in the late 60's early 70's (My place which my grandfather built from recovered material in what we call now as Upcycling). First of all there is only 2 years between the install dates of the furnaces (we have slowly over years been fixing the duct work as there is not enough cold air returns and the main plenum was never sized correctly until a few years ago) and the exact same air conditioners installed only a year apart. My Gas bill which provides the main heat for the 2 houses is cost wise more expensive than my parent's place but on the other hand because of my allergies I tend to do better with with windows open or at home compared to a sealed tight home or at a workplace that also has A low humidity. When it comes to weather conditions I prefer Cuba weather in November as that is when my allergies are at their lowest.

consider that you could sell your house as-is marketed as an “open air” design.

Dryer vent would be another one. If u have a gas water heater could be too. You can still be leaking around doors and windows even tho they are close too.

Have you thought of your window air leakeage

I found in our house which is very old that leaving the door open helps with air flow you have a nice house are you having Duct work replaced too I wish you the on your house

I needed to replace the soffits, and found that the sheathing wasn't nailed to the top plate. I have a lot more soffit to replace, and nail the starting to the top plate as I go, with Great Stuff on top of the sheathing. That's before sealing the top plates.

This is so cool, I'd love to tinker around with one of these on my own place... I have radiators and no central air so my numbers would probably be a lot lower... Curious if you looked at how well your windows and doors seal? I know my windows are my biggest source of leaks

Most returns in California are under sized

@ddrefrigeration231

Жыл бұрын

Most definitely

Thumbnail looked like a doorway to hell 😂

You would not believe how much air leak via windows or doors to outside (it is much better with newer ones) Also shading south windows with outside (slightly smart )jalousie may help to prevent sunshine ro heati inside of house but how much that is unknown and probably worth only for passive house

Sealing things up can save energy, but if you need to then add forced ventilation the advantages are void. Air 'leaks' only matter where there is a pressure differential causing air movement; if there is no differential any 'leaks' either won't matter or will be insignificant. When you went into detail regarding your 'mechanical closet' it became apparent that the combustion intake air was mixing with the return air. This will cause a pressure imbalance between the air inside your house and the attic space, which, as it is vented is effectively the outdoors. This have the effect of a slight pressure increase in your house trying to force air out through any 'leaks'. The other problem, which may be more significant as you mention your wife has an autoimmune disease, is that the negative pressure inside the 'mechanical closet' will draw unfiltered dust and contaminants from the attic space and therefore through the attic vents and distribute such pollutants directly into your house. A heat pump or air handler with fully ducted combustion air would mitigate this as there could be no pressure differential between inside and outside the house. Finally, what, if any, air quality testing (CO2, Humidity, etc) have you done inside your house? You have done a very thorough leakage test, which is great, but you need to test air quality as well. You may well find you have more problems with a more air-tight house. If you need to then add ventilation, that what was the point of sealing things up? If you are going to seal up 'leaks' then you will need to include a controlled and filtered fresh air supply into your air handling system, which may need implementing anyway. I really liked this video as I have your other videos. I really enjoy and I am very grateful for the technical aspects and information you include. I find this most helpful in building up my knowledge and understanding.

Thank you for the information. So A 5-ton unit requires around 2,000 CFM airflow. A 3-ton unit requires around 1,200 CFM airflow. My question is what should a person designing a house based off this (tonnage-wise, also new to HVAC )

I wonder with the blower going how much air you have still leaking from exterior doors and especially windows. I would guess that would be a much larger portion of the air leak compared to what will make it past the can lights and switches.

The reason you didnt see much of an improvement with the can lights is because you used rockwool covers, there not air tight, its the same as fiberglass insulation regarding tightness. You need skme sort of plastic airtight cover to go over the lights, and seal using something air tight like acrylic or silicone instead of open cell foam. Those covers are doing nothing, the small improvement you saw are from the adding the gaskets to the outlets/switches and making the penetrations smaller.

Hey Chris, by the way I live and work here in Washington,D.C.. I stop and talked with Bernie Sanders today. He was saying, his doctors got him on blood thinners and he is going to be red faced again. But he is still a bacon and eggs man. the horror, the horror, the horror.

❤️

I've been waiting for this video. Question for the duct blower test. When you hooked it up to the return register did you first open your air handler cabinet to seal off the open combustion pipes?

Pretty sure Duck Blaster was the sequel to Duck Hunt on SNES???

It almost looks like you’ve got James from Thomas the Tank engine coming through your door !

Wonder if replacing the can lights with the newer puck style led lights..would have had better results and maybe cheaper...lol

edit: NVM you talk about it later. For the can lights you should see how well those led bulb replacements seal as they have a foam gadget that supposedly seals it vs the covers you talked about. But theirs not much presher on t so I dont think it does too good of a job

@stevenrogers2448

Жыл бұрын

I wondered about those. If there's room you could caulk it to the ceiling (carefully so it doesn't look bad). But it's gotta be better than no seal at all.

don't feel bad about the result. its actually pretty decent. 3ach50 would pass for passive house in my area. its low enough that balanced ventilation system (hrv/erv) are worth while to be used. not sure if you did any electrical/plumbing penetration's into the wall from the attic. be interesting to see that puffer used around the windows. replacing window seals can help. your never going to get a house to air tight. did you try using your thermal camera on the house ? looking forward for the next videos.

@stevenrogers2448

Жыл бұрын

I thin you mean 3 ACH50 would pass for code or Energy Star. Passive House is 0.6 ACH50.

@tweake7175

Жыл бұрын

@@stevenrogers2448 depends on location. Different location Different passive house spec.

Check out Aerobarrier

We should call you Beyoncé with that fan…shoulda put a ring on it.

There are smaller better sealed can lights