Von Kopfman, president of IAQ Solutions, left, and Terry McCart, an IAQ partner and president of Blue Dot, both of Topeka, conduct a depressurizing test Thursday in Allen Fieldhouse. IAQ is working on an energy audit of the fieldhouse to identify leaks and recommend improvements that could make the building more energy efficient, and Blue Dot is a firm that performs such upgrades.

As if opponents don’t face enough pressure inside Allen Fieldhouse already.

This week, a Topeka company is testing the air pressure inside the heart of the 54-year-old fieldhouse, searching for ways to tighten up the historic atmosphere by sealing cracks, closing openings and otherwise improving energy efficiency.

The firm is checking the pressure by blowing air into the cavernous, 85,000-square-foot arena where Bill Self’s basketball team plays, and then sucking it back out.

“From the results that I’m seeing right now, it would be very easy to see a 15 to 20 percent reduction in (energy) usage here, with not too big of an investment,” said Von Kopfman, president of IAQ Solutions, which conducts energy audits and works to control air flow in residential, commercial, industrial and institutional buildings. “It would take a few years to pay that back, but typically on these projects even 15 years is a winner, especially when you’re looking at a building as enormous as this.”

The firm’s work is part of a larger contract, with Johnson Controls, to review energy efficiency in Kansas Athletics Inc. and other campus facilities.

So far, Kopfman said, the fieldhouse is performing well.

Air moves through the fieldhouse’s main arena — concourses, locker rooms and other areas excluded — at a rate of 0.9 cubic feet per minute for each square foot of space tested, he said. That’s even better flow than at the adjacent Horejsi Center, KU’s 10-year-old volleyball arena and hoops practice facility.

With the optimal flow for new construction at 0.5 cubic feet per minute, Kopfman said, a feasible goal for the fieldhouse would be somewhere in the middle, or about 0.7 cubic feet per minute.

Such performance, he said, likely could be accomplished by:

l Sealing cracks in concrete and stone, and tightening up windows that line the upper reaches of the building.

l Filling gaps in the floor, ones that surround pipes alongside vertical and highly visible steel I-beams that are painted blue, and reach up to the interior edges of the ceiling.

l Ensuring that roof dampers — the eight large openings that are used to provide ventilation — can be properly closed when necessary, to keep warm air in.

In short: nothing that a little well placed caulk, thermal elastic sealant and mechanical tinkering — along with systematic changes from Johnson Controls — can’t take care of.

“We’re just a small piece of a big puzzle that they’re working on here,” Kopfman said.

The stalwart steel-and-stone structure is in the midst of a major renovation, with the latest round of upgrades coming to first-level concourses, restrooms, locker rooms and the Booth Family Hall of Athletics. The work is part of a $38 million package of work that includes the fieldhouse, Parrott Athletic Center and Wagnon Student Athlete Center, and a new basketball practice center going up adjacent to the fieldhouse.

“There’s a tremendous amount of work being done on a number of fronts,” said Jim Marchiony, an associate athletics director. “One front is to retain the aura of Allen Fieldhouse while, at the same time, bringing it into the 21st century.”

Renovations to the fieldhouse are scheduled to be completed by the time basketball practice begins in October.