Air infiltration test

[retire09]

An energy assessment contractor is preforming air infiltration tests on the houses here in Alaska and including the attached garages in the test.

They are proping the door open between the garage and the house and determining the air infiltration rate for the combined floor areas.

I know nothing about energy rating but this does not appear to be right to me.

 

[cda]

Does not seem right

But do they build garages different in Alaska???? As in tighter???

Does the company give two test results one with the garage and one without ????

 

[retire09]

We do try to seal them up as best we can but no matter how hard you try, its difficult to stop air from getting in from a 16' two car garage door. They also ended up causing a back draft and pulled gas exhaust down from a water heater and unit heater vent in the garage.

As far as I know, they only gave one test result.

 

[Francis Vineyard]

Perhaps they are new at this and don't know the difference between an exterior door and an interior door where the building thermal envelope is concerned.

2006 The building thermal envelope shall be durably sealed to limit infiltration.

2012

The building thermal envelope shall be constructed to limit air leakage in accordance with the requirements of :Next('./icod_irc_2012_11_par051.htm')'>Sections N1102.4.1 through :Next('./icod_irc_2012_11_par056.htm')'>N1102.4.4.

[TR] [TD=bgcolor: transparent] Garage separation [/TD] [TD=bgcolor: transparent] Air sealing shall be provided between the garage and conditioned spaces. [/TD] [/TR]

N1102.4.1.2 (R402.4.1.2) Testing.

The building or dwelling unit shall be tested and verified as having an air leakage rate of not exceeding 5 air changes per hour in Zones 1 and 2, and 3 air changes per hour in Zones 3 through 8. Testing shall be conducted with a blower door at a pressure of 0.2 inches w.g. (50 Pascals). Where required by the building official, testing shall be conducted by an approved third party. A written report of the results of the test shall be signed by the party conducting the test and provided to the building official. Testing shall be performed at any time after creation of all penetrations of the building thermal envelope.

During testing:

1. Exterior windows and doors, fireplace and stove doors shall be closed, but not sealed, beyond the intended weatherstripping or other infiltration control measures;

2. Dampers including exhaust, intake, makeup air, backdraft and flue dampers shall be closed, but not sealed beyond intended infiltration control measures;

3. Interior doors, if installed at the time of the test, shall be open;

4. Exterior doors for continuous ventilation systems and heat recovery ventilators shall be closed and sealed;

5. Heating and cooling systems, if installed at the time of the test, shall be turned off; and

6. Supply and return registers, if installed at the time of the test, shall be fully open.

Francis

 

[jeffc]

I built a house in Alaska and we had to heat the garage because the permafrost could not support the septic tank so it was placed in the garage.

 

[Wooly]

Only the conditioned area is to be included in the test.

 

[tmurray]

Only the conditioned area is to be included in the test.

Here in Canada, we exclude the garage from the energy code regardless of if it is conditioned or not.