As a homeowner, you are likely always looking for ways to keep your home heating and cooling expenses low. One of the most important ways to help keep these expenses as low as possible is to ensure all of your HVAC equipment is clean and well-maintained.
Even if you are dedicated to proper maintenance, one aspect of your HVAC system you may be neglecting is your HVAC ductwork. Read on to learn why it is important to keep your home heating ducts well-sealed and insulated.
The Importance of Well-Sealed HVAC Ducts
The average homeowner loses up to 30 percent of their heated or cooled air through holes and leaks in their ducts. That means that if you have never had your HVAC ducts inspected for these holes and leaks and had them properly sealed, you could be missing out on an easy way to reduce home heating and cooling bills.
Why are leaky ducts a problem? Since ducts are typically located within your home's walls, ceilings, attics, and/or crawl spaces, the air that leaks out of them heats or cools an area of your home that is not a living space before the air finally travels to the rooms in your home where you do desire warm or cool air.
Leaks in ducts actually leads to so much energy waste that many newer homes are being constructed with visible HVAC ducts in living areas to prevent this problem.
In addition to helping keep your home energy usage lower, sealing your ducts can help keep your home more evenly heated and cooled. When there are leaks, they can lead to less heated air traveling to specific rooms in the winter and less cooled air traveling to rooms in the summer. Sealed ducts ensures the heated or cooled air gets to where you need it to go.
Sealing your ducts can also improve indoor air quality. When all the holes in ductwork hidden within insulated walls, attics, and crawl spaces of your home are sealed, this prevents insulation particles and dust from entering the ducts, where they where they may then be circulated throughout your home.
Metal Duct Insulation Can Further Reduce Home Energy Loss
After your ducts are properly sealed, an additional way to conserve energy in your home to lower home heating and cooling bills is to have your ducts insulated, if they are made from metal. While some newer homes have been built with fiberglass or foam ducts, most homes are still equipped with metal ductwork that can be insulated. Insulating your ducts prevents energy loss due to heat transfer through the metal.
In the winter, this metal heats up as heated air passes through your ducts on its way to the living spaces in your home. When this metal is hot, it also transfers this heat to the air surrounding the duct work instead of allowing all heat to be directed to your home living spaces. This leads to immense energy waste.
In the summer, the warm or hot air surrounding the metal ducts heats up the metal, and this heat is then passed onto the air inside your ducts that your air conditioning system just worked so hard to cool down. This can lead to your air conditioner having to work much harder to cool the air in your home, leading to higher cooling bills.
Adding insulation around your ductwork will prevent against heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer, ensuring that no energy is wasted.
Insulation should also be topped with a vapor barrier to prevent the development of condensation on top of the insulation when cool air flows through them in the summer. When condensation forms on the ducts, it can lead to duct rusting, which reduces the lifespan of your ducts and can contribute to the formation of new duct leaks as the rust gradually eats through the metal.
If you would like to reduce home energy loss through your HVAC system and have not yet had your
HVAC ducts sealed and insulated, then reach out to us at CJ Services Inc to schedule these services today.
