An important yet invisible part of your HVAC system plays a critical role in distributing clean, cooled air to every room in your house. Your mighty ducts wind their way unseen through the walls, floors and ceilings of your domain. Most people never give them the slightest consideration. However, here’s an inconvenient truth. Dirty air ducts can negatively impact the indoor air quality (IAQ) of your home. As homeowners strive to create better, healthier environments for themselves and their children, IAQ has grown in importance. People spend over 90 percent of their lives indoors, and air ducts deliver the air they breathe.
Dust to Dust – What Is It and Where Does It Come From?
Did you ever walk into a sunlit room or turn your head at just the right moment in time to notice a shaft of golden sunlight illuminating all the particles of dust hanging in mid-air. You think to yourself, “Geez, I keep this place clean – what is all that?” Dust is comprised of many thousands of particles. A smorgasbord of potential irritants including soil dragged in from outdoors (in Arizona, desert dirt is literally blown in during monsoons and dust storms) pollen, ragweed, mold, cigarette smoke, particulate smog floating in air from automobile and gas engine exhaust, tiny threads and fibers from rugs and furniture upholstery, indoor pollutants from household activities like cooking and using cleaning products, pet dander and let’s not forget, a fair amount of your dead, exfoliated skin! A typical household can generate up to 40 pounds of dust per year.
Having Your Ducts in a Row
All that dust in your home is circulated through your air conditioning system and carried from room to room by your air ducts. In a perfect world, air filters would be changed routinely. Dust and allergens would be, for the most part, eliminated. And, your air ducts would remain clean, aligned and relatively airtight. Unfortunately, as all homeowners know, stuff happens. Over the course of years, dust and dirt will build up inside air ducts. Sometimes filters don’t get replaced in a timely manner. Air ducts can get damaged due to remodeling, or a house settling. Leaks from the roof can introduce water into your air duct system. We’ve even heard of less-than-knowledgeable contractors moving ducts in order to deal with a problem in the ceiling rafters or behind a wall and simply forgetting to reconnect the duct and put it back in place correctly.
At the end of the day (or thousands of days – some systems haven’t been checked in years) your duct system is probably the most forgotten and ignored place in your home, even though it delivers precious air throughout the house.
Schedule a Duct Walk Through Your Home with One of Our Experts
Clean, cool indoor air is a high priority and a gift you can give to your family. Call the pros at Cool Blew, and we’ll perform a thorough duct and HVAC system inspection. The air you breathe should be as clean as can be. We can help you achieve that goal.
