by Cooper Climate Control
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Fall is a great time to improve your home’s energy efficiency. Inspecting your ductwork, registers and vents for common problems is a good way to determine whether you could be losing as much as 20 percent of expensive conditioned air.
There are seven common ductwork issues that plague households in the Valley-Metro area:
- Leaky connections. Ductwork that isn’t properly connected can leak air, and even separate altogether. Sheet metal screws and mastic should be used to secure the joints. Mastic is a putty-like material that you spread on, which hardens to form a seal.
- Leaky supply ducts. Ideally, supply ducts provide every room in the house with the exact amount of conditioned air it needs. If they’ve sprung air leaks, you could be conditioning areas you don’t want to, while important areas get shorted.
- Return supply leaks. Return supply vents recycle conditioned air that’s been circulated and then return it to the HVAC system, which saves energy. Air leaks can introduce unconditioned air, negating the savings.
- Blocked registers or vents. Make sure your registers and vents aren’t blocked by furniture, carpets, area rugs, drapes or other objects.
- Crunched or kinked ductwork. This is especially common for ducts in accessible locations, such as the garage or attic. They can become dented, bent or crunched. This can cause air to wrinkle, impeding its flow.
- Inadequate duct insulation. If insulation wasn’t installed around your ducts, or if existing insulation has fallen away or been damaged, cool and warm energy can transfer out through the sheet metal.
- Air leaks around the furnace. If you’re not using the right size air filter for your system, precious conditioned air escapes before it makes it to the filter or ducts. The areas where ductwork leaves the core equipment (the plenum) should be sealed with mastic.
Some of these issues will be simple to fix yourself, but others may be difficult to deal with. Call Cooper Climate Control, your Heating & Air Conditioning Specialists for expert duct inspection today. We proudly serve customers from Phoenix and Scottsdale to Sun Lakes, Tempe and Mesa, Arizona.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about ductwork and other HVAC topics, check out our blogs.
