Stellar Building Performance was in Highpointe today completing blower door testing Vero Beach field work on new construction homes in the community. I was onsite completing the testing as part of our ongoing work in partnership with Energy Code Compliance Specialists, helping keep energy code testing coordinated with the construction schedule.
Three neighboring homes were scheduled during this visit. Two were ready and available for testing, while a scheduling conflict prevented testing of the third. We’ll return to complete that home once it’s ready.
What made today’s testing particularly interesting was how closely the two completed homes performed.
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Blower Door Testing Vero Beach Results: Both Homes Below 3 ACH50
The first Highpointe home measured 1,365 CFM50, resulting in an air leakage rate of 2.90 ACH50. The second home measured 1,409 CFM50, resulting in 2.99 ACH50.
With two neighboring homes using similar construction strategies and producing results only 0.09 ACH50 apart, the testing provides a useful real-world look at the consistency of the building envelopes being produced in this section of the community.
ACH50 stands for air changes per hour at 50 Pascals. During a blower door test, specialized equipment creates a 50-Pascal pressure difference across the building envelope. We measure the airflow required to maintain that pressure and use the home’s volume to calculate how many times the equivalent volume of air would be exchanged in one hour under those test conditions.
In practical terms, a lower ACH50 indicates a tighter building envelope with less uncontrolled air leakage.
How Spray Foam Contributed to These Blower Door Results
Both homes use spray foam insulation, which contributes to the relatively tight building envelopes measured during today’s testing.
Air leakage matters throughout Florida, but our hot and humid climate makes controlling infiltration particularly valuable. Uncontrolled leakage can allow outdoor heat and moisture to enter through gaps and penetrations in the building envelope, adding to the conditions the home’s mechanical systems have to manage.
The goal, however, isn’t simply to make a house as airtight as possible and call it finished.
As building envelopes become tighter, having an appropriate strategy for intentional outdoor-air ventilation becomes increasingly important.
Tight Construction and Fresh-Air Ventilation Work Together
These Highpointe homes incorporate dedicated supply fresh-air ventilation as part of their construction strategy. The system provides a controlled source of outdoor air while helping maintain the home at a positive pressure relative to outside.
That’s an important distinction between uncontrolled infiltration and intentional ventilation.
Instead of relying on random cracks, gaps and penetrations to provide outdoor air, a tighter building envelope gives the home’s mechanical and ventilation systems greater control over how air enters the house.
This relationship between air sealing, blower door testing and ventilation is an important part of modern energy-efficient construction. The blower door gives us a measurable picture of the completed building envelope, while the ventilation strategy addresses the need for controlled outdoor air in a tighter home.
Energy Code Testing During Active Construction in Highpointe
Today’s visit also shows why coordination matters when performing testing for active production construction.
We had three neighboring homes scheduled, but only two could be tested. Rather than allowing the third home’s schedule to prevent progress on the other two, we completed the homes that were ready and will coordinate the remaining test separately.
That’s the approach Stellar Building Performance tries to bring to builder and contractor relationships. Testing still has to be performed correctly, but the process shouldn’t be more disruptive to construction than it needs to be.
We provide blower door testing and energy code compliance services in Vero Beach and throughout Indian River County for builders, developers, general contractors, HVAC contractors and owner-builders.
If you have homes approaching energy code testing, Stellar can coordinate testing around your construction and inspection schedule.
Need testing for an upcoming project? Request Testing from Stellar Building Performance.
For another recent Treasure Coast result, see our blower door testing in Vero Beach Project Update from The Strand.
Check out more of our Project Updates and other Vero Beach testing like our recent Blower Door Test in Lucaya Pointe Vero
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