If you have forced-air heating and cooling in your northeast Ohio home, the ductwork is an important system for staying comfortable all year long. Since you can’t see the ductwork running behind the walls and under the floors, it’s easy to forget how important the ducts are to your comfort. Take the time to check out any exposed ductwork in the attic, garage, crawlspace or unfinished basement and look for the following warning signs of ductwork problems.
- Uninsulated ducts: Heat transfer through ductwork walls can be severe if they’re not covered with insulation. The reason is that ductwork is usually made of thin metal, a conductive material that transfers heat effortlessly. Uninsulated ducts are particularly troublesome where they pass through unconditioned spaces, since the air in the attic, garage or crawlspace is much colder than inside the occupied areas of your home.
- Leaky ducts: What’s worse than uninsulated ductwork is uninsulated ductwork with gaps, cracks, or tears. These openings allow air to escape, where it’s wasted in unconditioned spaces. Leaky ducts should be sealed and insulated properly to reduce energy loss.
- Blind-alley ducts: These are ducts that lead nowhere or to the exterior. The registers they are supposed to serve are left cold. This mistake can happen when joists or other parts of the structure are used as makeshift ducts, which is just another reason why builders should only use proper materials for ductwork.
- Insufficient return ducts: The ideal setup is to have a return register in every room where a supply vent exists. However, some homes are built with only one or two return registers. This can depressurize different sections of the home, make your HVAC equipment work harder, and/or result in uneven heating and cooling.
If you spot any of these warning signs of ductwork problems in your home, don’t ignore them. Instead, contact Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning in Lorain to make necessary repairs. The resulting improvement in comfort and decrease in energy bills will make the visit well worth it.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about ductwork and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area