Do certain rooms in your home often seem more difficult to heat or cool than others? Have you noticed an increase in your heating and cooling bills over time? Leaky ductwork might be the problem.
Your air duct system is the metal framework that runs through the walls and ceilings of your home to deliver hot or cold air to where it’s supposed to go. If your ducts aren’t properly sealed, that air your HVAC system has worked so hard to heat or cool can leak out along the way, disrupting efficient operation and interfering with your family’s comfort levels.
Air duct cleaning and air duct sealing are not one in the same. Duct cleaning is the process of removing dust, dirt and debris from the interior of your ducts using a soft brush system, while duct sealing prevents air leakage that can occur anywhere between the furnace/air conditioner unit and the vents in the rooms of your house.
Who needs air duct sealing?
Simply put: everyone. EnergyStar.gov estimates that approximately 20 to 30 percent of the air that moves through your home’s duct system is lost because of leaks, holes and poor connections. Think about it for a minute. That means you’re losing 20 to 30 cents on every dollar you spend heating and cooling your home because of leaky air ducts! And to make up for that loss in comfort and efficiency, what’s the first thing most homeowners are likely to do? Turn up the heat or air conditioning, making your system work all the harder and leading to even higher energy bills.
The age of your home and system doesn’t matter — if you have existing ductwork in your house, it will benefit from closing any holes or cracks that are allowing air to escape and prevent your HVAC from operating at peak efficiency. In older homes, metal ductwork can weaken or erode due to damage or natural corrosion that occurs over time, resulting in small gaps and spaces where air can seep out.
Here’s how the sealing process works. First, contractors cover all the vents in your home with dense foam material, then pressure test the system by pushing air through to discover any weak spots in the ductwork. A resin glue sealant is then applied to close any leaks. Between set-up time, placing the glue and then allowing it to dry, homeowners should expect the air duct sealing process to take anywhere from 6 to 8 hours to complete.
Here at Lion Home Service, we use Aeroseal, one of the most popular brand-name sealing technologies on the market that utilizes a water-based, environmentally friendly material to seal holes in your ductwork.
Other benefits of air duct sealing
Another plus to consider — in addition to lowering your heating and cooling bills and improving overall comfort, air duct sealing may also help family members who suffer from allergies and asthma by reducing dust, debris and other pollutants that can enter the system through gaps and eventually circulate into the air your family breathes.
It is possible for homeowners to manage air duct sealing for themselves or to fix small leaks with metal-backed duct tape. But because the air ducts can often be difficult to access and the process requires task-specific tools and equipment, hiring a qualified, experienced home services company to do the job is often well worth the expense.
The total cost of air duct sealing depends on the size of your home and how many runs it contains, but usually ranges somewhere between $2,700 to $3,400. The good news is that air duct sealing only needs to be performed once and requires no maintenance or follow up afterward. When the sealing process is complete, the results should last for the life of your home.
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