Blower Door Testing

A blower door test measures a home's air infiltration rate under controlled depressurization. The equipment creates a specific pressure differential — typically 50 Pascals — and measures how much air is moving through the building envelope to maintain it. That number, expressed as ACH50 (air changes per hour at 50 Pascals), gives a precise picture of envelope tightness that no visual inspection can provide.

For Pensacola-area homeowners, blower door testing is the foundation of any meaningful energy audit. Florida's Energy Code (Florida Building Code, Energy Conservation, Section R402.4) sets air leakage standards for new construction, but most existing homes in Escambia County exceed those thresholds significantly — particularly homes built before 2007 when the state's energy code was substantially tightened.

Blower door results also drive utility rebate eligibility. Both Gulf Power (now Duke Energy Florida) and Florida Power & Light have offered weatherization incentive programs that use verified leakage reduction — measured before and after sealing — as the basis for rebate calculations. We can document pre- and post-work testing results in the format required for rebate submissions.

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Duct Leakage Testing

Duct leakage is measured separately from envelope infiltration, and in Northwest Florida homes the two problems frequently coexist. The standard test — duct pressurization at 25 Pascals — measures total leakage from the duct system, expressed as CFM25 (cubic feet per minute at 25 Pascals) or as a percentage of system airflow. Florida's Energy Code requires new duct systems to test below 4 CFM25 per 100 square feet of conditioned floor area. Older systems in the region regularly test at three to four times that threshold.

The practical consequence: a home losing 25–30% of conditioned air through duct leaks is paying to cool or heat its attic or crawl space rather than its living area. Duct sealing — particularly when the leaks are at air handler connections and major trunk line joints — can reduce that loss substantially. The return on investment in this climate, where cooling loads are significant eight months of the year, is often measured in months rather than years.

For homes where duct leakage testing reveals significant losses, we assess whether aeroseal duct sealing or conventional mastic and tape sealing is more appropriate based on duct configuration, access, and the distribution of leakage sites.

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Attic Insulation

Florida's Climate Zone 2A requirements specify R-38 minimum attic insulation for new construction under the current energy code. Many homes in Pensacola's older neighborhoods — East Hill, Brent, Ensley, and the mid-century neighborhoods throughout Escambia County — are operating with R-11 or R-19 insulation installed during original construction.

The performance gap between R-19 and R-38 attic insulation is not linear. In a hot and humid climate where attic temperatures routinely reach 140°F during Pensacola summers, the impact on cooling load — and therefore on air conditioning runtime and energy consumption — is substantial. Manual J load calculations, which use ACCA Manual J protocols to determine the actual heat gain and loss of a specific home based on its construction, orientation, and climate data, account for insulation levels as a primary variable. Adding insulation without doing a load calculation misses the opportunity to right-size the system for the improved envelope.

We install blown-in insulation for attic applications, which provides consistent coverage across irregular framing and around obstructions that batt insulation typically leaves under-covered. Before installation, we inspect the attic for air sealing opportunities at penetrations — recessed lights, top plates, plumbing and electrical penetrations — that should be sealed before insulation is added.

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HERS Ratings and Florida Utility Rebates

A HERS (Home Energy Rating System) score rates a home's energy efficiency on a scale where 100 represents the baseline 2006 IECC code home. Lower scores indicate greater efficiency. The average resale home in Florida scores around 130–140; a well-sealed, well-insulated home with efficient mechanical systems can score below 70.

HERS ratings are conducted by RESNET-certified raters and require blower door testing and duct leakage testing as core inputs. For Pensacola-area homeowners pursuing Duke Energy Florida's energy efficiency programs or FPL's Home Energy Survey rebates, a verified HERS improvement — documented before and after weatherization work — is the basis for program participation and rebate calculation.

We can coordinate with RESNET-certified raters for homeowners pursuing full HERS certification or utility rebate documentation. The combination of blower door testing, duct leakage testing, and attic insulation assessment provides the data needed for those applications, and we structure our diagnostic visits to generate documentation in a format that supports the process.

Contact us to discuss which utility programs are currently active for your service territory and whether your home's current performance makes you a candidate for meaningful rebates.