A loose, sagging or broken duct can create gaps where air can escape before it gets to the bedroom, living room or other habitable areas. Even if a duct is in good condition, it is typically a magnet for dust, mold and other debris, which can create an indoor air quality hazard. Fortunately, sealing your home’s ducts can work to prevent gaps and protect ducts from becoming contaminant magnets. They can also provide additional safety and comfort benefits for yourself, your family and your pets.
Reduce Your Energy Bills
Increasing efficiency by sealing your home’s ducts can help to reduce your overall heating and cooling bills. According to the ENERGY STAR website, you can save as much as 20% each month, which can easily add up to hundreds of dollars in savings each year. In addition, improving ducts and vents may allow you to switch to a smaller furnace, which may provide further savings down the road.
Reduce Allergy and Asthma Attacks
Keeping ducts sealed will keep a significant amount of dust, pollen or other contaminants from getting into the ducts. This means that there are less of those particles to get through air vents and into your living spaces. Ultimately, you are less likely to have itchy eyes, a rash on your skin or trouble breathing just because you walked into the living room.
Prior to having ducts sealed, it is important to have them cleaned. Otherwise, you’ll still be blowing contaminated air into your home. It is also a good idea to have the furnace and vents cleaned to further improve and preserve your home’s indoor air quality.
Every Room Will Feel the Same
When your home has leaky air ducts, spaces closer to the furnace tend to get the bulk or the warm or cool air it is tasked with transporting. Therefore, those rooms will tend to be warmer during the winter season and cooler in the winter season. Meanwhile, spaces farther away from the furnace will tend to receive less heated or cooled air.
Therefore, these spaces will feel warmer or cooler than the rest, which can be frustrating for a variety of reasons. For instance, you may avoid the den at all costs in the winter because it’s too cold or avoid that space in the summer because it’s too humid. In essence, you are ceding valuable square footage that could make your home more functional for yourself, your kids or your pets.
However, with sealed ducts, air will make its way to every destination around your house. This means that you won’t have to avoid certain parts of the house because they aren’t safe or comfortable to occupy.
Sealed Ducts Prevent Backdrafting
Backdrafting refers to when gas emitted by a furnace, dryer or other equipment does not vent out of the house. Instead, thanks to a leaky duct, the gas will escape back into the basement, attic or other spaces where appliances are located.
If you are exposed to natural gas, you could face a number of health issues that could be long-lasting or otherwise reduce your quality of life. These issues may include chronic fatigue, headaches or nausea. In extreme cases, you may be hospitalized or even die depending on the amount of gas that you interacted with and how long you were exposed to it.
However, sealing a duct means that gas won’t have a chance to escape anywhere other than the end of the proper vent. Our team at Loves Air in Modesto, CA can provide this service in a timely, professional and affordable manner. You may also be entitled to a service guarantee of some kind to ensure that you won’t have to pay to have the work done twice.
You Can Make Your Home More Ecofriendly
Reducing the amount of energy that your home uses can help to fight climate change and the negative consequences that go with it. Furthermore, you can reduce the amount of gas and other materials that result in acid rain or that otherwise contaminate the water that we drink or use to grow crops.
In some cases, taking an ecofriendly approach to energy use can make it easier to sell your home. This is because many buyers these days have shown a preference for properties that act in a sustainable manner.
Prevent Pest and Rodent Issues
Insects and rodents love to make their home inside of air ducts because they offer a safe place to start a colony. Air ducts may also provide warmth, moisture and other resources that a pest would need to want to make your home their home as well.
If there are any gaps in your existing ductwork, they can easily be exploited to gain entry. In some cases, the ducts may simply be a staging ground from which they will attempt to gain access to other areas of your property.
They may also try to eat into damaged ducts as they may prove easier to get through. However, by sealing your home’s ducts, there is a strong and more potent barrier surrounding what might otherwise be a vulnerable part of your home.
Get Rid of Nasty Smells
Improving indoor air quality is about more than making sure you don’t have an allergic reaction or get sick from natural gas exposure. Cleaning and sealing air ducts also gets rid of mold, mildew and other pollutants that create a musty or otherwise strong odor.
Mold tends to give off a musty odor that you can recognize from almost any room in the house. However, it tends to come off strongest in the basement, attic or garage. If there are dead rodents or insects in your ducts, they can give off foul odors that might take a long time to get rid of. This may be true even if you are able to get rid of the bodies or other remnants of their existence.
If you smoke, it’s possible that the particles will waft into the ducts through air vents. The smoke may also make its way into the home from outdoors depending on how close to the house you or others engage in this activity.
In addition to the lingering smell, smoke can also cause damage to ducts and most other surfaces it comes into contact with. Although sealing ducts won’t necessarily get rid of the smell on its own, it can prevent particles already in the air from being circulated throughout the property.
If you are in the market for duct sealing services, don’t hesitate to contact our team at Loves Air today. In addition to this service, we can also help with air conditioner services, heating system installation or install a tankless water heater in your home. Finally, our team can also put a solar system on your house, install new windows or add a whole home fan with ease.
