The Best New Blower Door Device You’re Gonna Love!

Resnet Conference 2013 Blower Door Wifi Attachment Gary Nelson

resnet conference 2013 blower door wifi attachment gary nelsonLast night I was at the Energy Avenger…er, the Energy Logic hospitality suite at the end of a great first day of the RESNET conference. I got a chance to talk with many of the wonderful people in the HERS rating industry, but I was also fortunate to be able to sit and talk to Gary Nelson, owner of The Energy Conservatory, for a while. We spoke of many things, but at one point I asked him what’s the latest and greatest in the world of blower doors.

Last night I was at the Energy Avenger…er, the Energy Logic hospitality suite at the end of a great first day of the RESNET conference. I got a chance to talk with many of the wonderful people in the HERS rating industry, but I was also fortunate to be able to sit and talk to Gary Nelson, owner of The Energy Conservatory, for a while. We spoke of many things, but at one point I asked him what’s the latest and greatest in the world of blower doors.

As any self-respecting building science geek would, he had a manometer in his bag. He reached in and pulled it out, as you see in this photo. But this isn’t just any DG-700 he’s holding. See that blue light on the top? That’s part of an attachment that screws onto the RS-232 port and produces a wifi signal.

Wifi? On a manometer? Wow! Well, if you can connect with your manometer through wifi, then that means you could read and control the manometer remotely, right? So you could be in an attic, say, and turn your blower door on, read the house and fan pressure, and set the cruise control. Wow!

Is there an app for that? You bet. Right now, it’s just available for the iPhone but they’ll have a Droid app out some day. The photo below shows you what it looks like.

resnet conference 2013 gary nelson blower door wifi app

You can’t really see it here, but right below where it says ‘fan speed’ is a slider to adjust that parameter.

How cool is that!?

Gary said the device isn’t available yet but will be ready to buy in June. The cost: $275. If you’re at the RESNET conference, stop by The Energy Conservatory booth to get a demonstration.

 

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This Post Has 9 Comments

  1. Nice! Would be great if the
    Nice! Would be great if the app can datalog too. Can it? 
     
    Also, can he put the fan direction switch back on???? That would be awesome!

  2. Great idea. I think I told
    Great idea. I think I told Gary my idea about that a few couple of ago. Royalties anyone? 😉

  3. Great idea. I’d like to see
    Great idea. I’d like to see EC make a bd canvas that has a duct blaster sized hole where the “window” is now. If each hole were zippable/air tight you could have one canvas for both bd testing and db whole house testing (for PH projects).

  4. Retrotec has a WiFi gauge
    Retrotec has a WiFi gauge available right now. See it at RESNET. Will work with all makes of fan.

  5. Our first release in March
    Our first release in March 2013 will include a data logger.

  6. I am a big fan of blower
    I am a big fan of blower doors, even though they suck! Now why fly up and down when I can appreciate them remotely!

  7. Allison, that is cool; and we
    Allison, that is cool; and we were just joking about an ‘app’ for the smart phone to turn it into a manometer. That will be an instant hit. Keep finding the cool stuff Doc.

  9. Thank you for the article.
    Thank you for the article. This looks very promising.

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