An Important Message:

First: ZipTest Pro²™ Building Diagnostics Software is still available, but the Texas Instruments TI-86 is not; it is off the market. We have no TI-86s in stock, and are not aware of any place to purchase them. However, USED TI-86s are available on www.ebay.com or from other sources. If you send a TI-86 to us, we will be happy to load the ZipTest Pro²™ Building Diagnostics Software for $120 per calculator, plus UPS shipping back to you (this assumes you download the software instructions from this website).

Second: We are now working on the new ZipTest Pro³™ Building & Energy Diagnostics Software for the Texas Instruments TI-89 Titanium calculator. We are expecting this updated software to be available during July of 2009. ZipTest Pro³™ will be downloadable from this website for you to load into your TI-89 calculator, you will be able to order it my e-mail, or we will load it for you if you send us your TI-89. We have not set the price of the ZipTest Pro³™ software package yet; we will post it here as soon as we figure this out.

The ZipTest Pro³™ Building & Energy Diagnostics Software will have the features of the ZipTest Pro²™ software (see below), but will be much easier to use, with dropdown menus, dialogue boxes, on-the-fly calculations, reports, and will include new programs, tools, and Nuggets.

If you want to be notified when the new ZipTest Pro³™ Building & Energy Diagnostics Software is ready to ship, please e-mail me at rjkarg@karg.com. Just put ZipTest Pro3 in the subject line.

Thank you for your patience. We are working to earn your trust and loyalty.

Rick Karg

• An Advanced Zone Pressure Diagnostics program that determines the amount of air leakage through pressure boundaries and predicts connections among as many as four building zones. For example, with the help of a blower door, the analyst can find the square inches of leakage in an attic floor or a basement wall and determine if the attic and basement are connected by a chimney or plumbing chase. This program is based on the research work done by the Center for Energy and Environment for the Energy Center of Wisconsin, published in the paper An investigation into Zone Pressure Diagnostic Protocols for Low Income Weatherization Crews, December 2001.
• A new program for determining the new ASHRAE 62.2-2003 ventilation requirements. This new ASHRAE Standard, Ventilation and Acceptable indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, significantly alters ventilation requirements for new and existing residential buildings. Unlike the previous ASHRAE ventilation Standard, this one requires that almost all buildings have continuously operating ventilation. This ZipTest Pro² program calculates the ventilation required to comply with this new Standard and includes the important "infiltration credit".
• A new program for implementing accurate blower-door-guided air sealing. The Weatherization Cost-Effective Guideline program calculates when air sealing is no longer cost effective and informs weatherization crews when to stop. By entering the data for the subject house, including blower door results, fuel type, fuel cost, and labor cost into this ZipTest Pro² program, weatherization crews can know precisely when to quit air sealing.

• Two Building Tightness Limit calculation programs. The basic building tightness limit program corresponds to the ASHRAE 62-2001 Standard Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality. The advanced building tightness limit program complies with ASHRAE Standards 62-2001, 119, and 136. Both of these programs express the ASHRAE 62-2001 Standard in terms of CFM₅₀ building tightness limit (BTL). If the building is tighter than this BTL, mechanical ventilation must be installed (the advanced program sizes the required ventilation).
• Blower door program for The Energy Conservatory Minneapolis Blower Door^™, model 3. This updated program calculates temperature-compensated building leakage CFM and CFM₅₀ values. If the house is too leaky to reach 50 Pascals of house-to-outdoor pressure difference, the can’t-reach-fifty multipliers are automatically used to extrapolate CFM₅₀.
• Duct leakage testing with The Energy Conservatory Duct Blaster^™. This program now includes CFM, CFM₂₅, and CFM₅₀ results. Duct leakage in square inches is also calculated.
• A number of the fifty Equation Nuggets are revised. These energy and building related equations allow the solving of any variable if values are entered for all the other variables. The new wind chill equation updated by the National Weather Service in 2001 is included and a powerful equation for calculating the Savings-to-Investment Ratio (SIR) for replacing refrigerators has been added.

• Energy index calculations for determining the BTU per degree day, per square foot of conditioned space in a new or existing building. This program includes options for natural gas, propane, oil, electric, kerosene, wood, and coal space heating fuels.
• Combustion venting safety calculations solving for CFM₅₀ depressurization limit, CFM exhaust limit, resulting pressure difference. This program helps the analyst predict at what level of building tightness or exhaust fan CFM the vented combustion appliances in the building will begin to backdraft.
• Basic Zone Pressure Diagnostics with add-a-hole, door, and vent methods. With the help of a blower door, this program determines air leakage through pressure boundaries in a dwelling. For example, the analyst can find the square inches of leakage in an attic floor or the square inches of air leakage in a basement wall.
• Financial Functions, a Texas Instruments program, calculates the time value of money, monthly payments on a loan, interest rates, and much more.
• Determination and graphing of the house leakage curve from multi-point blower door testing. We set the TI-86 calculator up to calculate and graph multi-point blower door testing; the user must just enter the house pressure differences, the corresponding CFM values, press a few buttons, and the house leakage curve is drawn on the screen. With this powerful function, the analyst can then determine the house-to-outdoor pressure created by exhaust fan operation.