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Air Infiltration Target

Programs: Comfort Home
To: All Comfort Home Contractors
Summary: Air Infiltration Target
Contact with Questions: Keith Bohling

NYSERDA has made a change to its Comfort Home program to better align with other residential retrofit programs. Beginning March 18, 2026,  Comfort Home will adopt an air infiltration target of 10 Air Changes per Hour at 50 Pascals (ACH50) or lower for 1-4 family homes. 

The target of 10ACH was designed in coordination with the EmPower+ program to help make a home heat pump ready. This target may become a requirement for future heat pump incentives through the Clean Heat program, which is why Comfort Home is now adopting it as an air sealing goal.

At the conclusion of a Comfort Home project, the Participating Contractor must verify the home’s infiltration performance.  If the contractor cannot perform a blower door test, the reason must be documented with uploaded geo-tagged photos and notes entered into NYHEP in the new ACH Target Note field. 

The Comfort Home program operates in alignment with the BPI Technical Standards for Envelope Professional, as indicated in the Comfort Home Program Manual which states  “All measures must be installed per manufacturer instructions, program guidelines, and BPI standards.” BPI standards for air sealing  include:

  • Air sealing measures must be prioritized to reduce the stack effect and inhibit moisture migration into attics or other interstitial spaces.
  • Air seal communication between the attic and living space first. Areas to seal include: by-passes around chimneys, ducts, drop soffits, shower inserts or other large penetrations; interior and exterior wall top-plates; and plumbing and wiring penetrations.
  • Leakage paths identified between attached or tuck-under garages and the living space must always be sealed.
  • Rim joist air sealing follows establishment of a pressure boundary between the attic and living space.

Additionally, air sealing installed through the Comfort Home program should conform with the New York State Technical Reference Manual which describes the minimum compliance efficiency requirements for air sealing as follows:

  • Sealing of interior wall/partitions between conditioned/unconditioned space including: doors, windows, plumbing/electrical/mechanical penetrations, larger gaps around windows/baseboards/etc.

As a reminder, all Comfort Home measure packages are “seal and insulate” packages and as a result must conform to the standards listed above. Package A is primarily intended to be used for homes where attic and rim joist areas present the only opportunity for improvement.  While the program allows for larger projects to be completed incrementally over multiple years, this option should not be used if deferring Package B measures would result in leaving unsealed areas that could be prone to moisture migration and/or pose a health and safety risk (e.g. the tuck-under garage ceilings noted in the BPI standards.)

These standards apply to Comfort Home projects in the following manner:

  1. Using diagnostic tools including blower door measurements, infrared scans, and visual inspection, verify that the areas listed in the standards above are already substantially air tight and do not require further sealing, OR
  2. Install air sealing measures as indicated below:
    1. Package A minimum requirements:
      1. Seal all accessible air leakage paths between the attic and/or roof and the living space to create a continuous pressure boundary aligned with the thermal boundary
      2. Seal air leakage paths between the rim joist and outside aligned with the thermal boundary
    2. Package B minimum requirements include all Package A requirements, and:
      1. When treating floor and wall areas use air sealing techniques and/or insulation installed in a manner to reduce air infiltration/exfiltration between conditioned and unconditioned spaces.

Blower door guided air sealing is preferable to air sealing without a blower door on site. The blower door is a tool that can be used by air sealing crews to identify air leakage locations to be sealed and to track progress toward the 10 ACH50 target. Trainings on how to use the blower door effectively as a real-time air sealing diagnostic tool can be found through the blower door manufacturers and the Building Performance Institute.

If the 10 ACH50 target can’t be reached with completion of these steps, notes about steps completed and source(s) of additional leakage should be entered in the new ACH Target Note field.   Projects that aren’t able to reach 10 ACH50 with reasonable explanation will still receive full package incentives.

This change will take effect for installations submitted in NYHEP on or after March 18, 2026.