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    • BPI WRITTEN EXAM >
      • Section 1 Building Science Fundamentals >
        • 1a. Basic Terms & Definitions >
          • 1. Airflow in Buildings
          • 2. Equipment Efficiencies
          • 3. Power and Energy
          • 4. Effective Leakage Area
          • 5. Area Weighted R-Value
          • 6. Baseload / Seasonal Energy Use
          • 7. Driving Forces (Including Natural and Mechanical)
          • 8. Behavior of Radiation
          • 9. Thermal Resistance / Transmittance: R and U Values
          • 10. Latent / Sensible Heat
          • 11. Total Equivalent Length
          • 12. Dehumidification / Humidification
          • 13. Convert Pressure Units
          • 14. Thermal Bridges
          • 15. Pressure Boundary
          • 16. Stack Effect
          • 17. Exfiltration and Infiltration
          • 18. Natural / Mechanical Ventilation
          • 19. Net Free Area
          • 20. Input & Output Capacity
          • 21. Peak Electrical Demand
          • 22. Permeability and Perm Rating
          • 23. Standby Loss
          • 24. IAQ (indoor air quality): Moisture, CO, Dust
        • 1b. Principals of Energy, Air & Moisture Thermodynamics >
          • 1. Thermodynamics: Conduction, Convection, Radiation, ΔT
          • 2. Factors That Affect Insulation Performance
          • 3. BPI certification online with BPI practice exams and study guides.
          • 4. Heat Gain / Loss
          • 5. Power and Energy
          • 6. Moisture Transport Mechanisms
          • 7. Identify Areas of Highest Relative Humidity
          • 8. Principles of Combustion
        • 1c. Combustion Safety >
          • 1. Combustion Analysis
          • 2. Carbon Monoxide (CO) Testing
          • 3. Combustion Appliance Venting, Draft, Combustion Air & Sizing
          • 4. Understand Combustion Safety Issues
      • Section 2 Buildings and Their Systems >
        • 2a. Building Components >
          • 1. Identify basic duct configurations and components
          • 2. Identify Basic Hydronic Distribution Configurations and Components
          • 3. Identify Basic Structural Components of Residential Construction
          • 4. Thermal Boundaries and Insulation Applications
          • 5. Basic Electrical Components and Safety Considerations
          • 6. Basic Fuel Delivery Systems and Safety Considerations
          • 7. Basic bulk water management components (drainage plumbing gutters sumps etc)
          • 8. Vapor barriers/retarders
          • 9. Radiant Barrier Principles and Installations
          • 10. Understand Fenestration Types and Efficiencies
          • 11. Understand Issues Involved With Basements, Crawlspaces, Slabs, Attics, Attached Garages, Interstitial Cavities, and Bypasses
          • 12. Understand Issues Involved With Ventilation Equipment
          • 13. Understand Basic Heating / Cooling Equipment Components Controls and Operation
          • 14. Understand Basic DHW Equipment Components Controls and Operation
          • 15. Identify Common Mechanical Safety Controls
          • 16. Identify Insulation Types and R-Values
          • 17. Understand Various Mechanical Ventilation Equipment and Strategies: Spot, ERV, HRV
        • 2b. Conservation Strategies >
          • 1. Appropriate Insulation Applications and Installation Based On Existing Conditions
          • 2. Opportunity for ENERGY STAR Lighting and Appliances
          • 3. Identify Duct Sealing Opportunities and Applications
          • 4. Understand Importance of Air Leakage Control and Remediation Procedures
          • 5. Blower Door-Guided Air Sealing Techniques
          • 6. Water Conservation Devices and Strategies
          • 7. Domestic Hot Water (DHW) Conservation Strategies
          • 8. Heating & Cooling Efficiency Applications
          • 9. Proper Use of Modeling to Determine Heating and Cooling Equipment Sizing and Appropriate Energy
          • 10. Understand the Use of Utility History Analysis in Conservation Strategies
          • 11. Appropriate Applications For Sealed Crawlspaces Basements and Attics
          • 12. Identify / Understand High Density Cellulose
          • 13. Appropriate Applications for Fenestration Upgrades Including Modification or Replacement
        • 2c. Comprehensive Building Assessment Process >
          • 1. Determine Areas of Customer Complaints / Concerns in Interview
          • 2. Understand / Recognize Need For Conducting Appropriate Diagnostic Procedures
          • 3. Interaction Between Mechanical Systems, Envelope Systems and Occupant Behavior
        • 2d. Design Considerations >
          • 1. Appropriate Insulation Applications Based On Existing Conditions
          • 2. Understand Fire Codes as Necessary to Apply Home Performance in a Code-Approved Manner
          • 3. Understand / Recognize Building Locations Where Opportunities for Retrofit Materials
          • 4. Understand Climate Specific Concerns
          • 5. Understand Indoor Environment Considerations for the Environmentally Sensitive
          • 6. Understand Impact of Building Orientation, Landscape Drainage, and Grading
          • 7. Opportunity Potential Renewable Energy Applications: Geothermal, Photovoltaic, Wind
          • 8. Understand Impact of Shading on Heating / Cooling Loads
          • 9. Awareness for Solar Gain Reduction / Solar Gain Opportunities
          • 10. Understand Need for Modeling Various Options For Efficiency Upgrades
      • Section 3 Measurement & Verification of Building Performance >
        • Section 3a Measurement & Verification of Building Performance >
          • 1. Air Leakage Test Results
          • 2. Understand Building Shell / Envelope Leakage
          • 3. Apply Fundamental Construction Mathematics and Unit Conversions
          • 4. Calculate Building Tightness Levels (Minimum Ventilation Requirements)
          • 5. Calculate Heating Degree Days and Cooling Degree Days
          • 6. Identify Proper Appliance and Combustion Appliance Venting
          • 7. Ventilation calculations and strategies
          • 8. Proper methods for identifying / testing fuel leaks
          • 9. Blower door setup, accurate measurement and interpretation of results
          • 10. Combustion Appliance Zone (CAZ): depressurization, spillage, draft, Carbon Monoxide (ambient and flue)
          • 11. Carbon Monoxide (CO) evaluation: ambient
          • 12. Proper applications and use of temperature measuring devices
          • 13. Pressure pan and room to room pressure diagnostics
          • 14. Recognize contributing factors to comfort problems
          • 15. Inspect for areas containing moisture or bulk water in undesirable locations
          • 16. Understand and inspect for basic electric safety (e.g. frayed wires, open boxes, etc)
      • Section 4 BPI National Standards & Project Specifications >
        • 1. Understand applicability content and intent of BPI National Standards – Do no harm, make buildings more healthy, comfortable, durable and energy efficient
        • 2. Recognize need for a professional local/state/national codes evaluation
        • 3. Be able to specify appropriate materials and processes needed for building performance projects
      • Section 5 Analyzing Buildings Systems >
        • 1. Recognize need for air sealing measures and their impact on other building systems
        • 2. Recognize need for mechanical equipment improvements
        • 3. Understand blower door use for identifying critical air sealing areas
        • 4. Apply blower door test results and Building Tightness Limit (minimum ventilation requirements) in development of improvement strategies
        • 5. Using combustion analysis and safety testing results to develop appropriate recommendations
        • 6. Determine appropriate method for assessing wall insulation levels
        • 7. Equipment control strategies for maximizing occupant comfort and minimizing energy consumption
      • Section 6 Conduct and Communications >
        • 6a. Conservation strategies
        • 6b. Personal Safety & Work Practices >
          • 1. Locations in which to identify indoor air quality issues
          • 2. Material Safety Data Sheets
          • 3. Isolation procedures for household pollutants
          • 4. Practice building science within your limits of professional competency
          • 5. Precautions when working around chemical biological and other potential hazards
          • 6. Understand role and responsibilities of the building analyst professional
    • BPI FIELD EXAM >
      • How To Put The House Under Worst Case & CAZ
      • What's What? Pa, CFM, CFM50, CAZ, Draft, Room Pressure
      • What To Know In The Attic
      • What To Know In The House
    • BLOWER DOOR TEST >
      • Manometer Setup
    • BPI BUILDING ANALYST STANDARDS >
      • BPI Standards Decoded
  • ESSENTIALS
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    • COMMON AUDITOR / CREW MISTAKES
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BPI Written Exam - Section 3 Measurement & Verification of Building Performance

1. Application of Measured Air Leakage Test Results

Air leakage is reported in CFM50, or cubic feet per minute (a flow rate) at 50 Pascals.  Air leakage results should be compared to the Minimum Ventilation Requirements (MVR) according to BPI Standards and set by ASHRAE 62.2 to tell if the home is too tight or can be safely air sealed and by how much.

Using a blower door, we can set a pressure differential between inside and outside.  Once the home has been set up for blower door operation and the fan is up and running, we can easily find the location of air leakages with the following tools.

  1. Our hands are the quickest and easiest way to simply feel air flowing through cracks to the outside.  By wetting your hand, you can discover less noticeable leaks.  By closing a door or partially closing interior doors, you can compare the air leakage of each room to one-another.
  2. Smoke pens will put a puff or stream of odorless smoke into the air and the air will take the smoke in the direction of air flow, either towards the middle of a room if pressurizing or the smoke will get sucked outside if depressurizing.
  3. Infrared cameras can show the cold / hot (depending on the season) air coming into the home through air leakage sources.  IR cameras do not show insulation misalignments or missing insulation when in use at the same time as the blower door.
  4. Pressure mapping can be extremely helpful to quantify how leaky an inaccessible wall chase, archway or column is without having to tear drywall down.  In balloon framed homes, it can let you know if a drywall needs to come down before you assume that the wall cavity needs to be capped and air sealed.

“Homes with more than 6,000 CFM50 may merit days of labor and hundreds of dollars of materials,” write energy experts John Krigger and Chris Dorsi in their book, Residential Energy. “Homes with 1,500 CFM50 are difficult to improve.” You can use the following two formulas below to calculate how much air leakage is costing a homeowner during heating and cooling season from Lawrence Berkeley Labs.

How Much Is Air Leakage Costing Homeowners?

Heating season
26 × HDD x fuel price x CFM50 ×0.6 / N x seasonal efficiency

Where: 
HDD is the annual heating degree days (base 65° F) for the building location
Fuel Price is the cost of fuel in dollars per BTU 
N is the Energy Climate Factor from the Climate Information Screen
Seasonal Efficiency is the AFUE rating of the heating system

Cooling season
0.026 × CDD × fuel price × CFM50 / N x SEER

Where:
CDD is the cooling degree days (base 70° F) for the building location 
Fuel Price is the cost of electricity in dollars per kWh. 
N is the Energy Climate Factor from the Climate Information Screen 
SEER is the SEER rating for the air conditioner

What do you do once you find air leakage in a home?

Once you find how leaky the house is and where it is coming from we need to come up with a plan to to seal the air leakage.   In humid climates air leakage has a higher importance because moisture is damaging because all it takes is a small amount of air leakage to let humid air into the duct system and wall cavities, potentially causing mold and rot.  Now now all homes are rotting away because of air leakage but we all know it is a frequent problem.  Finding the source of the moisture is key, then eliminating it or mitigating it away from the house and air leakage points will minimize waters damaging effects.  Moisture may come from air handlers located in crawl spaces, closets or attics, improper drainage away from the house, bad roof slope design, or leaks at plumbing lines or vents.

Once moisture is mitigated you are free to air seal.  Air sealing should be done with a rigid material like foam board or drywall for capping large penetrations or spray foam or Pookie for smaller leakage around top plates and to seal around foam board.

Air leakage that is visible or accessible is the easiest to tackle.  Punch lists and maps should be developed for the crew of exactly where the leakage needs to be sealed and with what material.  Where air leakage was found with pressure mapping within walls, a plan should be created to access and seal the wall cavity and a back up plan should be done in case the first drywall cut does not capture all the intended leaks.  Blower door testing should also be done in conjunction with air sealing to measure that improvements were made on the spot.  That way, more work can be done without having the drywall replaced.
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See also:
Blower door guided air sealing techniques - http://www.bpiexamacademy.com/5-blower-door-guided-air-sealing-techniques.html

How to control ventilation once the house is sealed - http://www.bpiexamacademy.com/4-understand-importance-of-air-leakage-control-and-remediation-procedures.html

Retrotech's guide to air leakage - 
http://retrotec.com/sites/default/files/manual-guides-specs/Manual-Residential%20Pressure%20&%20Air%20Leakage%20Testing.pdf


Pressure mapping - http://www.bpiexamacademy.com/15-pressure-boundary.html
- http://www.bpiexamacademy.com/5-blower-door-guided-air-sealing-techniques.html

Next Section

3a. Applied diagnostics and troubleshooting
  1. Application of measured air leakage test results 
  2. Understand building shell/envelope leakage as a function of pressure difference and the size of holes in the air barrier 
  3. Apply fundamental construction mathematics and unit conversions 
  4. Calculate building tightness levels (minimum ventilation requirements) 
  5. Calculate heating degree days and cooling degree days 
  6. Identify proper appliance and combustion appliance venting 
  7. Ventilation calculations and strategies 
  8. Proper methods for identifying / testing fuel leaks 
  9. Blower door setup, accurate measurement and interpretation of results 
  10. Combustion Appliance Zone (CAZ): depressurization, spillage, draft, Carbon Monoxide (ambient and flue) 
  11. Carbon Monoxide (CO) evaluation: ambient 
  12. Proper applications and use of temperature measuring devices 
  13. Pressure pan and room to room pressure diagnostics 
  14. Recognize contributing factors to comfort problems 
  15. Inspect for areas containing moisture or bulk water in undesirable locations 
  16. Understand and inspect for basic electric safety (e.g. frayed wires, open boxes, etc) 
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