By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
Thirty percent of builders don’t have a problem with performing a blower door test, a measure of a home’s energy efficiency.
They’re already doing them.
The problem is 70 percent are not.
It’s an issue because seven in 10 builders won’t know if their houses are tight enough to pass the test until after they’ve been built, said Lee Arsenault, head of the Florida Home Builders Association’s Codes and Standards task force.
“You’ve just added an element of uncertainty to the process,” he said.
Florida lawmakers wrapped up 2015 with a special session in June. The extra three weeks allowed legislators to pass a budget and to settle a few lingering issues.
One of them was blower door tests.
It was part of the updated Florida Building Code that went into effect July 1. Builders secured a one-year delay on blower door portion, though.
A blower door test seals a vinyl panel to the front doorjamb. A built-in fan sucks air out of the house, measuring how much comes across the threshold.
The test shows how “leaky” the house is. A less leaky house means the home’s air conditioning won’t come on as often, saving energy.
Blower door tests were optional before, but the new code makes them mandatory for all homes built. It also lowers the number of allowable air changes per hour from seven to five. One air change means replacing all of the air in the house.
Builders asked for a delay to blower door tests after industry feedback showed many were not aware of the new requirement and others were not trained in best practices for building a house that didn’t leak. It was likely that many homes would fail.
The delay gives the industry time to get up to speed.
It also will give rule makers time to review what Arsenault calls “a glitch” in the codes.
Lowering air changes to five per hour helps with energy consumption, but it bumps up against another rule — one that requires five air changes per hour or more to keep a house properly ventilated and mold free.
“It would mean we’d have to reach exactly one number,” Arsenault said. “It’s so precise, it’s not reality.”
Koontz implementation bill (HB 383)
Implements a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The new law limits the exactions local governments may impose on developers during permitting. Local governments may still ask developers to, for example build a park, to compensate for impacts. But, the exactions have to be related to the development and proportionate to the impact.
Construction defects bill (HB 87)
Requires that complaints of defective construction be specific enough to allow for a cure. Current law says before a contractor is sued for defective construction, he must be allowed the opportunity to cure the problem. But complaints were sometimes so generalized, “did not follow Florida code” for example, contractors couldn’t realistically respond.
Master building permit bill (HB1151)
Requires cities to have a permitting process by which tract homes — with essentially the same floor plan over and over — may be approved in bulk.