In order for your home’s HVAC system to function safely and effectively, there are numerous system components that need to be in proper working order. One of these crucial components is the duct system. Here are some significant reasons why properly sealed ductwork is important to your HVAC system, your health, your wallet and your comfort.
Air Quality
Heating and cooling systems have a lot to do with the overall air quality in your home. These systems move the air while controlling its temperature, humidity level and even its cleanliness. Much of the responsibility for air cleanliness falls on the system’s filter, but unknown to many, the system’s ductwork also plays a major role in a home’s indoor air quality.
All of the ductwork that runs throughout your residence should be sealed so it doesn’t blow air out or pull air in from spaces external to itself. When this network of air-carrying conduits isn’t properly sealed, it will stir up the dust, dirt and other foreign particulate matter that would otherwise remain at rest inside walls, floors, ceilings and other dead spaces in the home. That cloud of foreign matter then circulates into your HVAC system, throughout the house and into your lungs.
Heating and Air System Efficiency
Sealed ductwork provides the various routes that direct air to specific parts of your home. When the ducts are properly sealed, the air that’s being pushed by the system’s fan has no choice but to travel through these conduits to its intended destinations. On the other hand, when ductwork isn’t sealed, the air traveling through it is given unintended entrances and exits.
A small experiment can help shed light on how this works. With a straw or empty paper towel cylinder, try blowing through it and moving a piece of paper on a table or other flat surface by simple force of air. This should be fairly easy to do.
However, if you then put holes and cracks in that same cylinder or straw and try blowing through it to move the sheet, the amount of force required may exceed what you can possibly provide by mere lung power. The loss of air through the breaches makes it exhausting to be able to push enough air through to actually move the paper. This is the same principle of physics that is happening in your system’s ductwork when it tries to move air through conduits with breaches in them.
System Wear and Tear and High Energy Bills
With the experiment mentioned above, you can quickly gain an understanding of the exhaustive work needed to push air through compromised ductwork. HVAC systems must do much more work in order to push air through unsealed passages. The result is a much higher energy bill in addition to parts that wear out too quickly. In this situation, particular strain is placed on the system fan, fan motor, compressors, capacitors and many other components that all rely on one another to work in tandem.
Safety
Indoor air quality can really take a hit when particulate matter from the home’s dead spaces is stirred up due to unsealed ducts sucking them in and blowing them where they shouldn’t be. This is cause for health concerns. Unsealed ductwork can be particularly harmful to someone with an underlying condition like asthma or allergies.
Comfort
Finally, if your home’s ductwork isn’t properly sealed, it’s unlikely your system will easily be able to cool or heat certain areas within it. For example, if the duct line that feeds your back bedroom has a small crack or hole in it, much of the air being fed to that room will be lost in the walls before it can even reach the vent in that area. The resulting benefit to that room will be diminished or lost. In fact, your system may work very hard and use lots of costly energy but never actually be able to properly adjust the temperature there.
At Bone Heating & Cooling, we have all the experience and tools needed to test for duct leaks and fix them. Along with our top-rated duct-sealing services, we’re also your full-spectrum HVAC service, offering a complete range of repairs, installations, inspections, tune-ups and more. We’ve proudly served Festus and the surrounding areas of Missouri since 1978. Give us a call today and experience our award-winning service for yourself.