Air Duct Cleaning and Sealing Can Increase the Efficiency of Your HVAC System

Regardless of how efficient your heating and cooling system is, you may be losing money by having dirty or poorly planned ductwork in place. In fact, it is a known fact that leaky duct work can reduce the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by as much as 20 percent.*

While your HVAC equipment produces warm or cool air, your ductwork is what carries and disperses that air throughout your home. If joints aren't properly sealed and insulated, air can escape and result in more energy consumption to keep your home heated or cooled.

Air duct sealing and insulation can be simple if they are in open spaces. Repairs that are in enclosed spaces should always be performed by a qualified professional, such as the technicians at American Residential Services (ARS), serving Northern Virginia, Washington DC metropolitan and Maryland.

If you are concerned about the efficiency of your ductwork, the following are options you should consider:

1. Repair areas of leakage by finding sections in the ductwork that should be joined that have come apart. You can do this visually, or by running your hand along the path of the ductwork to feel for extreme hot and cold spots.

2. If you want to use duct tape for your air duct sealing, make sure it is not tape that cracks, loses quality, or loses its bond with age.

3. The ductwork in most homes is designed in one of two ways: radial or trunk and branch. Radial design is where your air supplies and returns are directly connected to your heating and cooling system. Trunk and branch design is where supplies and returns branch off from one long piece of ductwork that is connected to the HVAC system (known as the "trunk"). If you don't have one of these two systems in your home, you may want to consider converting your ductwork to one of these two designs.

4. Make sure your air ducts are insulated in areas where they run through parts of your home that are not heated or cooled. This will just give you another "layer" of protection so less air escapes.

Air Duct Cleaning and Sealing Can Increase the Efficiency of Your HVAC System

Comments

Post a Comment