Unmaintained Air Ducts: Risks and Prevention Tips
Despite how much care and love you put into cleaning and maintaining your home, ducts could be a breeding grounds for unwanted dust and other contaminants. Without proper cleaning and upkeep, they can easily be affecting the air quality of your home and even affect your HVAC efficiency.
Keep up with checking and getting your forced air heating/cooling systems cleaned, and see the immense benefits!
Allergies
Dirty air ducts are especially troublesome for those who have allergies, because unkempt air ducts could trigger a reaction and greatly affect your quality of life. About half of all allergies are made worse by contaminated indoor air quality.
There are plenty of creepy crawlies hiding in the dust that naturally accumulates in your home. Things like dust mite feces, cockroach particles, and lead are common allergies that are individually quite frequent in homes, especially older houses. Other naturally occurring substances include pet dander, mold, and debris, which totals on average of 40 lbs of dust a year!
Poor HVAC Performance
Not having regular checkups on your air ducts could really affect the over all performance of your HVAC. Buildup on HVAC Coils can reduce efficiency by over 20%, which saves energy and money. Not only that, but in the case of damage, about 90% of all HVAC problems and failures are due to dirt, debris, and dust, all of which could be easily avoided by keeping up with regular maintenance.
The Best Medicine is Prevention
These contaminants and health hazards associated with dirty and unkempt air duct quality are all preventable. If you are not a trained professional, it is impossible to assess the severity yourself, as these issues lay on the “inside” and are not visible.
You might just blame the season or other outside factors for your poor allergies or stuffiness. Even though you cannot see it, does not mean it is not there or that it is not a danger. Prevent issues and stop problems before they get a chance to start, all with easy, timely maintenance.
How To Prevent Damage and Contamination After Duct Cleaning
If you’ve had your air ducts cleaned and maintained by a trained professional, there are other steps you can and should take to ensure that your air quality is at it’s peak. Doing these few, simple steps will help you avoid unwanted reactions and will boost your HVAC efficiency! Make sure to:
- Drain pans often and regularly.
- Chance the furnaces filters air purifiers (on standalone models)
- Clean cooling coils.
