Are Your Ducts Clean? More Importantly, Are Your Ducts Efficient?

Most people don’t think about duct efficiency – they just think about whether or not their ducts are clean. While clean ducts are important, efficient ducts are critical.

Imagine this, you just spent over $7,000 for a high efficiency furnace and air conditioner. Your contractor promised you great comfort and energy savings with the new system. The crews came, installed the system, you wrote the check and are now ready to enjoy a new level of comfort in your home – and a nice reduction in your utility bills, right? Unfortunately, not all customers experience such rewards after a new installation. Why not? The contractor did not test for proper air flow before or after the furnace and AC were installed.

How can ducts be inefficient? Your duct system could have a number of issues:

• Incorrect installation
• Holes in the ducts
• Separations at the seams
• Poor design like insufficient returns/supplies

These don’t sound like major problems, but they can cause issues with your comfort and energy savings like:

• Loss of 25%-40% of the newly conditioned air into the attic, crawl spaces or wall cavities
• Poor air flow to certain rooms causing uncomfortable temperature differences (some rooms are hot while others are too cold)
• Increased dust and debris in your living areas. This debris is pulled INTO the ducts through the existing holes and separations and blown out of the ducts with your conditioned air. Much of this debris is insulation and other construction materials from your attic and wall cavities

So, you’ve got a new system but you didn’t get the bang for your buck. What’s your next step? Call Bonfe’s for a correction to your duct system by using a product called Aeroseal. We don’t need to open walls or ceilings to get to your ducts - we can actually seal the holes and penetrations from your mechanical room in one day. The process is simple. A residue is blown into your duct system (after all registers have been sealed). The residue is then pushed out of all the holes and penetrations. As the residue exits the duct work, it sticks to itself thus closing the hole. Once the application is complete, the technician will show you the before and after results using his computer generated statistics.

Research for this system was funded by the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and Electric Power Research Institute. If you feel that your home is not as comfortable as it should be or that your heating and air conditioning equipment is not saving you money like it should, call Bonfe’s to set up an appointment to learn more about Aeroseal. Our Comfort Consultants will measure your air flow, look for air penetrations throughout your home and create a workable solution to solve your indoor air quality and air flow issues.