The temperatures can get quite chilly in the fall in Dayton. Maintaining a comfortable and healthy environment is ideal. One way you can accomplish this is by scheduling ductwork repair and maintenance. Let’s look at how to ensure efficient heating for your home this fall.
Improving Ductwork Insulation
Ductwork is designed to move conditioned air to the various living spaces in your home. In the fall and winter, this process moves warm air with your furnace. If you’re looking to ensure efficiency, you’ll want to prevent any loss of heat from occurring. If you have a larger home, some rooms that are a good distance away from your furnace or air conditioner may experience hot or cold spots. When your thermostat senses that your home isn’t at its preset temperature, this will cause your HVAC system to run more frequently.
You can insulate your ductwork to prevent lost efficiency. There are several ways to do this. There are insulation wraps that can be installed around your ductwork. Foam, fiberglass, and other materials are commonly used. Spray foam insulation is another popular product. It can easily be sprayed into tight spaces around your ductwork. Once it cures, the spray foam insulation is effective in preventing heat loss. It’s also a very affordable investment that often comes with rebates and incentives that make it worthwhile.
Ductwork Repair: Sealing Up Cracks and Gaps
As your ductwork ages, it can develop various gaps and cracks that allow conditioned air to escape. This is another scenario that will lead to your HVAC system running more frequently to maintain the temperature, decreasing your system efficiency. We can help seal up these gaps and cracks, providing you with a much more sealed system. Various products can be used to seal damaged ductwork, such as mastic and mesh tape. Liquid sealants that cure to a hard finish are also an option.
Ductwork Inspections
Periodically schedule an inspection for your ductwork. This maintenance appointment allows us to check your ducts to see if there’s any current damage we need to repair to improve the efficiency of your system. One way that we do this is with a camera. We can insert a camera into the depths of your ducting to check for issues.
We also use ductwork pressure testing to inspect for leaks that we may not be able to see immediately. By pressurizing your ductwork and evaluating our pressure readings, we can assess efficiency.
Scheduling a Duct Cleaning
Even if your ductwork is free of damage, holes, gaps, etc., plan to schedule ductwork cleaning every few years. In some cases, you may want to consider more frequent cleanings. This includes if you have pets in the home, people smoke in your home, or you’ve recently had remodeling work done that generated a lot of dust and particulates.
Ductwork cleaning can promote system efficiency by reducing the strain that is placed on your HVAC system. This can also help promote healthy indoor air quality, which benefits your health and well-being.
Upgrading Your Air Filter
You can boost the efficiency of your ductwork and HVAC system by ensuring that you change out your filter every 30 to 90 days on average. The frequency will depend on the type of filter that you’re using, how often you run your cooling and heating equipment, the environmental factors where you live (pollution), etc. We recommend upgrading your filter if you’re concerned about your air quality and the efficiency of your HVAC system. Some filters can trap quite a good number of particulates, reducing the workload on your furnace. This can also prevent particulate matter from entering the interior components of your furnace.
If your system can handle it, a HEPA filter is a great option that removes as much as 99.97% of the particulate matter in your indoor air. However, HEPA filters can be a bit too restrictive in some cases. You may be able to upgrade the MERV rating that you’re currently using. Again, very high-rated MERV filters may be too restrictive. We can guide you on the best filter to use that will protect the efficiency of your system.
Considering Air Purification
If you feel like your furnace filter isn’t doing enough to protect your HVAC equipment, ductwork, and indoor air quality, consider having whole-house air purification equipment added to your HVAC system. Rather than using a portable unit that needs frequent maintenance and must be moved around a lot, whole-house filtration addresses your home as a whole. Your ductwork not only distributes conditioned air but also purified air in this instance. Less particulate matter will make its way into the interior components of your furnace and air conditioner, prolonging their life and boosting efficiency.
Another way to protect your HVAC efficiency and boost indoor air quality is to monitor the relative humidity level in your home. A whole-house dehumidifier or whole-house humidifier can do a great job of protecting your IAQ and HVAC systems.
Modifying Return Vents and Intakes
The ductwork originally installed in your home isn’t necessarily adequate for your needs and efficiency. This is especially likely if your home is older or if rooms or spaces have been added over the years. We may recommend making some minor adjustments or changes. We can inspect your ductwork to ensure that you are getting consistent and adequate airflow throughout your home. This prevents your system from becoming overworked and strained, reducing repair needs. We may recommend that you have some additional ductwork installed if you’re not experiencing optimal comfort in areas like your upstairs bedrooms and kitchen.
We might also determine that you need to increase the number of intake or return vents that your home has. This can boost airflow, reducing the time you need to run your HVAC system to bring your interior to your desired temperature.
We recommend that you go through your home and ensure that all your vents are open. A lot of homeowners attempt to save money by closing off vents in rooms that they do not use very frequently. This makes your heating and cooling equipment work harder. Also, make sure that there are a few feet of clearance around all your vents, including the intake ones. Keep these vents and intakes clean, just as you would ductwork and your filters. We can clean these areas of your system as part of your ductwork cleanings.
Trusted Local Ductwork Experts
If you would like to learn more about the ways you can ensure efficient heating in your home during the fall, reach out to our team here at Universal Heating & Cooling. In addition to ductwork inspection, duct sealing, repair, installation, and maintenance, we also service and install different types of heating and cooling equipment in the Dayton area. We also provide indoor air quality assessments, UV lighting technology, purification equipment, and more. We can even help you install attic insulation. Reach out to Universal Heating & Cooling in Dayton to schedule an appointment.
