Do Your Air Ducts Need to be Cleaned?

The research has been available for some time now. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that indoor air is one of the top five pollutants. Other research tells us that indoor air is 40 times more polluted than outdoor air. Does that mean that your duct system through which indoor air flows should be cleaned frequently? No, it doesn’t mean that you need to get ducts cleaned as often as you do your laundry or vacuum your floors.

For most people, breathing in a little dust is not a serious health hazard. But there are limits. If your ducts go for years without being cleaned and dust builds up on your registers, your indoor air may become hazardous to breathe.

Adding to the hazardous concerns is that your home air circulates over and over. The air you breathe comes out of your heating/cooling registers and goes back into your ductwork to be heated or cooled again. Then that same air gets sent back through your ducts to be breathed again and again.

Southern Air Heating, Cooling & Plumbing has the experience and equipment to clean your ductwork and improve the quality of the home air that you breathe. Duct cleaning is a job for trained professionals. An inadequate vacuum system can release more contaminants than if you had left the ducts alone. Beware of companies that make sweeping claims about duct cleaning improving your health. Such claims cannot be verified. However, a properly done duct cleaning job will significantly reduce the dirt and contaminants in your home air.

What You Should Expect from the Duct Cleaning Process

• Before you start vacuuming, your system should be checked for asbestos-containing materials. Asbestos requires specialized procedures and should not be disturbed or removed except by specially trained and equipped contractors.
• Only equipment that exhausts particles outside the home or through HEPA filters should be used.
• The inside of ducts should be carefully brushed in conjunction with vacuuming.

Preventing Future Build-up of Dust and Contaminants

• Use high-efficiency furnace filters and change them frequently. If filters get clogged, change them even more frequently.
• When your unit is serviced, make sure that the cooling coils and drain pan are also cleaned.
• Remove dirt and dust from your home regularly, and use high-efficiency filters in your vacuum.

Duct cleaning will improve your indoor air quality, but cleaning is not the only problem related to ducts. By most estimates, as much as 30% of the air that goes into your ducts leaks out before being delivered to wherever the ducts lead. While getting your ducts cleaned, consider taking the next step and get them professionally sealed. You can look for leaks and slap a piece of duct tape over the gap, but that is not professionally sealing your ducts. You won’t eliminate the majority of leaks unless you have the right equipment to find the leaks and the right materials to seal them up.

Call Southern Air Heating, Cooling & Plumbing today to discuss possible duct cleaning for your home.