Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

Tag: Duct Sealing

In our previous post, we talked about the different types of air cleaners and air purifiers that you may benefit from using this spring, as allergens spike once more. Today, we want to talk about another source of subpar air quality, as well as general discomfort and considerable inefficiency. We want to talk about leaky ductwork.

If you use a forced-air air conditioning system, as most homeowners do, then you use air ducts in order to distribute cooled air throughout your home during the hottest time of the year. There is nothing wrong with doing this, obviously. The issue is that many homeowners fail to recognize that their air ducts are actually not in good working condition.

Why Is Leaky Ductwork a Problem?

Leaky ductwork allows air to escape out of your air ducts. This conditioned air will wind up in your home somewhere, so it is not going to be a total loss. However, it will not necessarily wind up where it is needed, and that can lead to higher energy costs as your AC tries to balance temperatures throughout your home. Plus, you are going to run into other issues like hot spots throughout the house, as well as reduced air quality.

Air May Leak Out, But Allergens May Also Get In

With regards to indoor air quality, leaky ductwork is actually a major issue. Once pollutants have made their way into your air ducts, after all, that system of ductwork can then distribute those pollutants throughout your entire home. This can lead to serious issues with aggravated allergy and asthma symptoms.

What Can You Do?

Give us a call, of course! We offer air duct testing services that will allow us to determine if you do indeed have leaky ductwork in your home. If so, we can go about completing effective duct sealing in Loveland, CO. Contact us today with any questions that you may have.

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning is here for your IAQ service needs. Big enough to serve, small enough to care.

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If you use a radiant heating or ductless system, then you are not going to be depending upon your air ducts again until the cooling season arrives once more. If you use a forced-air heating system, such as a furnace or a heat pump, though, then your heating system is still very much a part of your day to day life. You cannot let leaky ductwork go unresolved.

Unfortunately, there is no way in which to guarantee that you will never encounter problems of any kind with your air ducts. When you do, however, there are definitely warning signs that you can recognize and which can give you an early alert. Read on, and remember to let the professionals on our staff handle your duct sealing services in Loveland, CO.

 

  1. Low heating efficiency is definitely something to keep an eye out for. Yes, you are going to have to pay to heat your home. If you’ve been doing so for at least a couple of seasons, you probably have a basic idea of how much it costs to keep your home warm. If you see any inexplicable spikes in your heating costs, despite not using your heater any differently, leaks in your air ducts are likely.
  2. Falling indoor air quality may also suggest that you have leaks in your ductwork. When your air ducts leak, it’s not just air leaking out that should concern you. It’s also pollutants making their way in. When that happens, those pollutants can be distributed throughout your entire home via your air ducts.
  3. Cold spots are yet another sign that you’ve got leaks in your air ducts, particularly if you have hot spots in those same areas when running your whole-house air conditioner. When the ductwork serving any given area of your home is leaking, that area is not going to get the conditioned air it should.

Schedule your duct sealing services

with Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning. Big enough

to serve, small enough to care.

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The air ducts that follow a circuitous path throughout your home serve a very vital function in a forced-air heating and/or cooling system. Because your ducts are more or less entirely hidden from view, you may fail to give them the attention that they require. This is unfortunate, since problems with your ductwork can negatively affect you in a number of different ways. We encourage you to review the following information, and to contact us if you have any reason to believe that your air ducts are compromised. You can count on us for great duct sealing services in Fort Collins, CO.

Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

A major concern with leaky ductwork is the effect that it can have on the quality of the air in your home. When your ductwork is not properly sealed, it can draw pollutants in through gaps and cracks. When this happens, your ductwork itself can be responsible for distributing those pollutants throughout the house. Thanks to professional duct sealing, you can ensure that these pollutants do not infiltrate your system.

Protect Efficiency

When your ductwork leaks, your HVAC system is not going to be able to heat and cool your home with the efficiency that it ought to. This can leave you paying higher heating and cooling costs than you normally would. If you notice that your heating and cooling bills are on the rise, it may be due to leaks in your ductwork system.

Live More Comfortably

Another problem that leaky ductwork can lead to is the inability to live in ideal complete comfort. When your ductwork is leaking, it will likely result in the uneven heating and cooling of your home. This is not the best situation, obviously. When hot or cold spots start appearing around your home, it just may be time to have your air ducts professionally sealed.

Call Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning for great duct sealing services.

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Do you use a forced air heating system in your home, such as a furnace or a heat pump? If so, you are going to be depending upon your air ducts a lot in the months to come. Winter may not really be starting off with a bang this year, but there is still plenty of cold weather to come. If your air ducts are not properly sealed, then you are going to run into some pretty serious problems as you attempt to heat your home in an even and effective manner. Fortunately for you, we are here to offer professional duct sealing in Windsor, COGive Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning a call today if you are concerned about your ductwork.

 

Signs That Duct Sealing Is Necessary

Your air ducts are not easily accessible, nor are they visible in any substantive way. How, then, can one hope to determine if his or her air ducts are in need of service? There are actually a number of potential warning signs that can alert you to the need of a service such as duct sealing. You just have to know what it is that you are looking for.

  • Increased Heating (and Cooling) Costs: Did your cooling costs over the summer surpass the normal level? Have you gotten a utility bill representing your heating costs that seemed over the top already? It could be due to air leaking out of your system. Let us evaluate the situation in order to determine if duct sealing could resolve the problem.
  • Reduced Indoor Air Quality: Air leaking out of your ductwork is a major concern, but it’s not the only one. You also don’t want pollutants to be making their way into your HVAC system. They can be distributed throughout your entire home via your ductwork, which will drag down the quality of the air filling that space.
  • Whistling or Hissing Sounds: Do you hear odd whistling or hissing sounds when using your HVAC system? It could be the result of air leaks in your ductwork. Contact us if notice this problem in your home.
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The majority of homeowners utilizing whole-house heating and/or cooling systems choose to distributed heated and/or cooled air throughout their homes via a system of air ducts. When these air ducts are expertly designed and installed by qualified professionals, they can be quite effective in distributing air throughout a living space. They’ll also do so without wasting energy via leaks and other issues. However, over time, air ducts can wriggle free of fixtures, suffer damages, corrode, and be otherwise compromised. In such events, you are wise to schedule professional duct sealing services in Fort Collins, COTo do so with a qualified technician that you can trust to do the job right, just give the pros at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning a call.

  1. Improve Efficiency: If your air ducts are not properly sealed, they can allow conditioned air to escape into areas of the home where it is not needed. This is problematic, as your HVAC system is going to have to work overtime in order to heat or cool more air in order to make up for this failure to deliver air effectively. This can drive up energy costs, making the heating and/or cooling of your home a more costly endeavor than it ought to be.
  2. Protect Indoor Air Quality: Air escaping your ductwork is not the only concern when it comes to improperly sealed air ducts. You must also concern yourself with the negative impact that such issues can have on your indoor air quality. If pollutants are allowed to enter your ductwork via subpar seals, then those pollutants can be distributed throughout your house by your ductwork, dragging down the air quality in every area therein.
  3. Live More Comfortably: Another issue that you risk encountering if you ignore duct sealing needs is uneven heating and cooling throughout your home. Your system just won’t be able to maintain comfortable temperatures evenly throughout the house if the ductwork is not sealed as it ought to be. Contact us if you have any reason at all to believe that your air ducts need to be professionally sealed.
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Do you use air ducts in order to distribute heated and/or cooled air throughout your home? If so, do you know for certain that your air ducts are in the best working condition possible? If not, don’t worry; you are far from alone in this position. However, you should know that having an understanding of the type of condition that your air ducts are in can be hugely beneficial in a number of ways.

If your air ducts are working just fine, then you should be able to enjoy a great performance from your HVAC system. With improperly sealed or leaking ductwork? Not so much. Here are a few warning signs to keep an eye out for which can indicate the need for professional duct sealing in Fort Collins, CO. Call Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning today if you think that it may be time to have your air ducts sealed.

 

  • Increased energy costs can indicate that your air ducts are not properly sealed. Should conditioned air leak out of your air ducts, then it may wind up in areas where it is not needed or helpful. This means that your HVAC system will expend more energy in trying to sufficiently heat or cool those areas which do need it, but are not receiving proper airflow.
  • Decreased indoor air quality is another sign that you may require professional duct sealing services. If your air ducts are not properly sealed, of course, air can leak out. However, pollutants can also make their way into your air ducts. Those very same ducts can then distribute those pollutants throughout the house.
  • A decline in overall comfort levels is another sign that you air ducts may require sealing. If conditioned air is not distributed throughout your entire home evenly and effectively, then you may find hot and/or cold spots developing throughout. Allowing our skilled technicians the opportunity to resolve such problems can help to prevent any such problems.
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If some of the rooms in your home never cool quite as quickly as you’d like, it could indicate a problem with the ductwork. Many homeowners take their ducts for granted, forgetting that a component so hidden from view could be so vital to the performance of an HVAC system. Ducts must be in top condition in order for your HVAC system to deliver cool or heated air into your home as efficiently as possible. Unfortunately, ducts may develop cracks and holes over time that keep them from delivering their best work.

Sometimes, faulty ductwork seems like a tolerable problem. For instance, you may adjust to the fact that it takes your home longer to reach a certain temperature, or you may simply vacate the rooms where heating or cooling seems to be uneven. But duct sealing offers more benefits than simply making your home more comfortable. Here are a few reasons prompt duct sealing is so important.

Help Your HVAC System Perform at Its Best

When your ducts are leaking, air cannot reach your home as quickly as it should. This is a given, but have you thought about how this might affect your air conditioner or furnace? When air cannot enter your home with ease, your HVAC system will work harder to reach the proper temperature. This means that parts can become worn down and may eventually fail.

Besides, all the extra work does a number on your energy bills. You spend extra money every month for all of the work your system does, as it must run for longer periods of time to reach the temperature you’ve set.

Improve the Indoor Air Quality

One less obvious reason to schedule duct sealing is improving the quality of the air you breathe. Your ductwork runs through some of the dirtiest areas of your home, the parts that you can’t reach as part of your normal cleaning routine, such as a small crawlspace. As air flows through a leaky duct, it may suck up some of the dust and debris in the crawlspace as well as hazardous particles from insulation.

For professional, quality duct sealing in Loveland, call the indoor air quality experts at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning today!

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Although the ductwork of your house remains mostly hidden from your sight, there are still ways to tell if you need professionals to seal up breaks or gaps in your ducts. If you detect low air pressure, incorrect temperatures, or musty smells emanating from your vents, then chances are good there’s a break somewhere in them. (Even if there isn’t, something is wrong and it needs investigating.)

Duct sealing isn’t only about restoring your home’s correct temperature. It will save you money. Here are some of the different ways that our Laporte, CO, duct sealing team at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning can help you save money with repairs on your ducts.

Here’s Why Duct Sealing Will Save You Money

  • Increased efficiency for your HVAC system: The most immediate problem that breaks and gaps in ducts will cause is a reduction of air pressure. Ductwork requires an airtight seal along its length to maintain the air pressure from the blower all the way to the vents, and when any leaks occur along the ducts it will lead to a drop in airflow and a loss of heating and cooling. Your HVAC system will work harder to overcome this loss, leading to a noticeable spike in your bills. Duct sealing will restore the airtightness of the ducts and take pressure off your comfort system.
  • Less need for duct cleaning: Duct cleaning is something you should schedule on a regular basis—dust will enter your ventilation system no matter what—but the amount of dust and other contaminants that will enter the ducts will leap dramatically because of breaks. Often, these breaks occur in hidden and dusty areas of your home, which makes the dirt and debris problem worse. You could find yourself needing duct cleaning more than once a year unless you seal up those holes.
  • Reduced chance of needing mold remediation: Another danger from having leaks that open up onto hidden and unused areas of your home is that moisture can get inside the ducts, and this will encourage the growth of mold, mildew, and bacteria. To protect your indoor air quality, as well as to prevent further damage to the ducts, you will need to have mold remediation done using the installation of UV germicidal lights. Avoid this extra expense with timely duct sealing.

Duct Sealing Needs Professionals

If you thought that perhaps you could just seal those holes with duct tape, you need to know that duct tape isn’t for ductwork. Sealing ducts requires special metallic tape and resin sealant. It also requires technicians capable of accessing your ducts. Call in the professionals for this job: Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning has the duct sealing and HVAC service specialists in Laporte who can help you save money.

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