I am quite conscientious about regular household maintenance.
- Every year, I drain the water heater, service the refrigerator and hire vent cleaning for the clothes dryer.
I regularly remove debris from the gutters and change air filters in the vacuum cleaner, furnace and air conditioner. In the fall, I inspect the interior and exterior of the house for any areas that require caulk, weatherstripping or insulation. I have the lawn mower, heating system and cooling system professionally serviced every year. It never occurred to me to include the ductwork in my task list. Because the network of pipes is largely concealed behind walls and ceilings, I forgot all about it. However, the conditioned air that my family breathes and I pay for passes through the system multiple times per day. It’s responsible for delivering heated and cooled air to the various rooms of the house. Any holes or gaps at the seams allows that air to escape. Those imperfections can also draw in unconditioned air and introduce VOCs, odors, dust and other pollutants into the living space. When the maximum amount of air fails to reach the intended destination, the furnace and air conditioner are required to run longer and use more energy. Energy bills go up and there’s an increased chance of malfunction. When I hired a licensed HVAC contractor to test the operation of our home’s ductwork, he found that approximately 20% of air was leaking out. He recommended duct sealing. The process was not invasive, damaging or messy. It was completed in a few hours. The technician pumped pressurized air laced with polymer particles into the ducts that sealed up the holes as the air leaked out.
