Floor Plenum Testing

How is a floor plenum air test carried out ? In brief, we remove a box a temporary a tile is removed from the plenum and our fan housing is installed directly above the opening. A fan is then installed into the box and this is all sealed against the floor. Any air handling ducts serving the test zone need to be turned off, isolated and temporarily sealed, stopping the passage of air to outside of the test zone via duct-work. Thereafter another tile is removed and a mock floor tile with a drill hole for the high pressure tube is installed in its place. After the equipment is set up a series of tests is undertake and the readings recorded and then checked against the floor plenum air tightness specification. If the plenum test fails, you’re  APT plenum test engineer  will carry out a smoke test to look for air leakage paths. If you have floor or ceiling plenums in your building you need to be aware that a staggering 70-80% fail their first air tightness test. APT...

What is a Floor Plenum Air Test? A floor plenum is a void between a building’s floor structure and a raised access floor. The floor plenum is used for distributing conditioned air to the spaces above. It is important that conditioned air in a floor plenum flows into the occupied zone and does not leak into cavities, risers, stairwells, heating trenches or other adjacent zones.  A properly sealed floor plenum will allow the floor grills and diffusers to fulfil their primary role of delivering air at the correct flow rate. As a result, the air-tightness of floor plenums (or lack of) can be a serious energy efficiency issue and is essential for the whole air conditioning system to work. Testing procedure BG65 / 2016 , addresses these issues and places upper limits on the air leakage of floor plenums. Distinctions are made between air leakage to adjacent spaces - normally referred to as plenum leakage, and uncontrolled air leakage into conditioned zones...