Air Ducts Can Leak Valuable Heat or Cool Air
You may have the newest, most energy efficient heating and air equipment, or maybe your system getting on in years but still performing well. Whichever is your situation, a sure way to get the most out of either is to check your air ducts.
Air ducts are a key component to any system. A great home comfort combination begins with the heating and air unit, but it ends with a tightly sealed, properly functioning ducting network. When one part is operating properly and the other is not, you are losing out on energy savings.
Whenever hot and cool air are generated, the process of heating and cooling causes expansion and contraction of duct connections. This constant movement can often cause joints to loosen or even separate. When that happens, you begin losing conditioned air before it reaches the home. Flexible ducts can have collapsed sections or tears, thus causing air leaks or greatly reducing air velocity.
Loose connections at registers or vents can be spilling air into wall or floor spaces, reducing the air reaching the interior of the home. Losing even a small percentage of that heated or cooled air makes your system work harder in order to achieve a proper comfort level. Any situation that compromises a sealed system of air ducts wastes energy dollars.
If your air ducts have not been thoroughly examined in recent years, or never examined at all, you could be losing air in attics, crawl spaces, walls or basements. Our technicians at T.F. O’Brien can give your ducting a complete inspection and possibly discover problems you didn’t even know existed. Estimates are that up to 30 percent of homes may have air duct issues. Contact us with any ducting questions you have. We will be glad to answer your questions or set up an appointment to examine your ducts. We’ll help make sure your home comfort system is operating at peak efficiency.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about air duct sealing and other HVAC topics, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.