Home inspection services for Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Newport News, Smithfield, Hampton & Williamsburg 757-620-4919

Energy & Diagnostic Services

Name: Dynamic Home Inspections
Address: United States
Telephone: 757-620-4919

As State Licensed Home Inspectors for 30 years, we are actively in-tune with home construction and modern energy requirements.

Because of this, today we specialize in Energy Services, dedicated to helping homeowners and builders solve their energy issues.

With our extensive Home Inspection experience, together with our energy efficiency expertise, training, and high quality testing equipment, we can help expedite the process of meeting your energy needs by providing all the required energy services, plus high-quality customer services and technical support.

Let us be a part of your next home performance project!

Energy Assessment – Audit

Ed Clowes in green shirt working on home inspection software

By conducting an Energy Survey, sometimes know as energy inspection the auditor is able to identify ways to Increase your homes comfort and reduce home energy cost.

Our primary focus is on the building and its main components.

Minimizing energy loss could result in dramatic savings to your energy bills as well as increasing comfort. Once the audit is completed, you will receive a detailed report of the results. The report will highlight any problems and include the inspectors recommendations on actions that need to be taken to improve comfort and reducing home utility cost.

Blower Door Testing

A Blower Door is a testing machine used to measure the air-tightness of buildings.

This is used in existing homes to assist in locating problem areas and solve problems. Also in new construction to insure that the air seal meets the city standards.

The Blower Door consists of two main components:

• Blower Door Fan is a powerful fan that mounts into the frame of an exterior door. The fan pulls air out of the house, lowering the air pressure inside. The higher outside air pressure then flows in through all unsealed cracks and openings so we can determine the air leakage rate of the building.
• Handheld Digital Manometer, (computer) which measures the results.

Natural air leakage, or air infiltration, occurs when outside air enters a house uncontrollably through cracks and openings. Properly air sealing of such cracks and openings in your home can significantly reduce heating and cooling costs, improve building durability, and comfort to create a healthier indoor environment.

The Blower Door can be used to measure airflow between building zones, test ductwork to assist finding air leakage, help in finding moisture leakage, and to help find air leakage using an Infrared camera if weather conditions permit.

Also with today’s standards it is possible to air seal so tight that the house requires make-up air another good reason for testing.

Duct Pressure Testing

Duct pressure testing is the process of using a Duct Blaster to pressurize the HVAC duct system and measure the amount of airflow that is lost through the duct system.

Duct leakage is the loss of conditioned air that you paid for, that leak from openings in your duct system to all the wrong places.
It can also be the leakage of unconditioned attic air, (hot humid) coming into the return duct system and traveling throughout that HVAC zone, which can lead to poor indoor air quality.

Duct leakage can also lead to pressure problems of your home’s interior. The ducts that are part of the heating and cooling system offer one of the best opportunities to increase your energy efficiency, increase your comfort, and lower your energy bills. It’s wise to perform a Duct pressure test in all older homes as part of the energy assessment.

Infrared Thermography

Infrared Thermography is a proven diagnostic technique recommended by the US Department of Energy for identifying areas of heat or cooling loss. Considering your heating and cooling load makes up the largest percentage of your actual energy bill, a thermal scan of your home in conjunction with a Blower Door can help identify air leakage areas, if weather conditions permit.

Also the infrared survey can help find damaged, misplaced or missing insulation in the exterior walls, ceilings, vaulted ceilings, and floors.

Infrared technology when combined with training & experience of the home systems, building science, and knowledge of how to interpret the images can provide valuable information when making decisions for solving problems & making improvements.

Interior Pressure Testing

Interior Pressure Test with cords and sensor

Interior Pressure means dual-channel baseline and pressure

Pressure testing involves a digital manometer and various connecting hoses.

Pressure imbalances as low as negative 2 Pa can cause comfort issues, air infiltration rates to rise, moisture intrusion, back drafting of combustion appliances, etc.

Pressure inside a home is becoming more critical as we build to the new building codes of 5 ACH or lower.

Most pressure problems are a result of HVAC system imbalances.

Also in buildings that are too tight with no make-up air. This is another reason for Blower Door testing to understand the air tightness of your home.

Typical we see negative pressure in the central area of a typical home and bedrooms running positive.

Depressurization of even 2 Pa can lead to moisture problems in hot humid climates such as Hampton Roads causing sweating ducts when combined with other issues.

Positive pressure in a room of 2 Pa and the room is unable to have a functional relationship with the air handler. I have seen rooms in a home with pressure as high as positive 10 PA and the air leakage of building was 4 ACH(Tight) thus the reason for that room to be colder than others in the winter and hotter in summer.

Pressure Pan Testing

A pressure pan can also be used to locate duct leaks to the outdoors while the Blower Door is on. With the building de-pressurized to 50pa, a pressure Pan can be placed over each register, to take a measurement of the pressure between the duct and the room where the register is located. The larger the pressure difference, the larger the leak(s) in the nearby ducts. This can also be used after duct repairs, to determine if all major leakage sites have been repaired.

Air Flow Capture Hood

A Flow Hood or Bolometer measures the volume of air moving through an object, this case it’s your HVAC duct system.

When used, it is placed over an HVAC vent inside a home to measure the amount of airflow that comes out into the room. This test is more commonly known as an airflow test which will calculate the volume, CFM of air that is being pushed out of an individual supply vent or being sucked in through the return grill.

By making a floor plan of the home and marking all the HVAC vents and the corresponding CFM flow we get a diagram of what is going on.

The air flow diagram shows us if the air flow in a home is balanced, meaning no single room is receiving too little or too much supply air. This can and does lead to rooms being too hot or too cold as well as pressure indifferences.

With building standards requiring the 5 ACH or lower we are seeing more pressure issues because of HVAC systems not being balanced.

Humidity Condensation

In the Hampton Roads area summer high humidity can lead to moisture problems caused by humidity entering the building envelope.

We have the experience to find the SOURCE of the air intrusion that is getting into the building envelope creating the condensation.

Sweating ducts is a common problem in this area and HVAC contractors know the problem that’s why they call us to find the source.

Summer is the time of year when your air conditioning unit has to work the hardest to cool your home. On hot days you may notice water droplets forming on your visible air ducts and wonder whether this is normal. What you see is condensation, also known as ductwork sweating.

The point at which the relative humidity of the air reaches 100% is referred to as the “dew point.” Many times the warmer, more humid air inside your home will meet the colder ductwork, and the cold metal surface is at dew point, so condensation forms, leading to the apparent “sweat” on ducts.

The bigger problems are the areas you can’t see, typically in the ceilings and between floors. Ducts can sweat so much with the long run times we experience here in Hampton Roads, that over time the sheetrock gets wet and you see the moisture stain, sometimes it gets wet enough to drip onto the floor of your home.

It does not necessarily mean that your A/C system is in trouble, but it may still be something that requires your attention.

High humidity indoor is the typical cause of sweating ducts.

To solve the problem correctly you have to find the source of the hot humid air that is leaking through the thermal envelope of the home.

If your ducts are sweating, Dynamic Inspections can help! Don’t wait until the problems get worse, contact our experienced team to schedule an inspection today!

We have the experience & equipment to find the SOURCE of the air intrusion that is getting into the building envelope creating the condensation.

Get In Touch

Dynamic Home Inspections | 757-620-4919 |