My husband and I have spent a lot of time consulting with an architect. After living in our cramped, starter home for the past 11 years, we were finally ready to make some needed changes to it. We have added an extra 600 square feet of space onto our house. Before the construction began, we finalized the plans for our new heating and air conditioning unit with our HVAC contractor. Because our home was going to be substantially bigger than it is now, we purchased a larger HVAC system. We also installed a new, digital thermostat inside my home. On this blog, I hope you will discover the best types of HVAC units to buy for mid-size homes. Enjoy!
If you've noticed that your central air conditioning system is not cooling your house as quickly or efficiently as it once did, you might assume that it needs to be cleaned or repaired. While this might be true, the problem could also be the result of leaky air ducts, which can make it hard for a system to keep up. Here are a few things to understand about this problem.
The function of air ducts
With a central AC system, the cool air produced by the system is sent to the rooms in your home through air ducts. The air must travel through these to reach every room. Some spans are short, while others are long. The farther the air must travel, the harder it can be for it to reach the rooms in your home. This is not only because the air must travel farther but also because there are more connections between the air ducts. Each connection can pose a problem.
The problem with air-duct connections
Air ducts are installed in sections, and the way the ducts are connected can pose problems. The seams in these ducts can become loose over time, and this allows gaps to form. As the air travels through the ducts, it can leak out of these gaps. This not only causes less air to come out from your registers but also leads to inefficiency with your system.
If this is the problem you are having, you might be losing as much as 30% of your airflow, which is a lot. This can lead to really high utility bills and a waste of energy.
Air-duct connection checks and fixes
Hiring an AC contractor is the best way to find out if this may be the problem with your system. The contractor will examine and test the seams in the ducts and will fix any that are not properly sealed. These seams can be fixed with tape or insulation in most cases. Once this issue is fixed, you should notice a huge improvement in the way your system works. Your system should cool your house faster and with less energy.
AC systems can lose efficiency for many reasons, and an inefficient system costs more money and takes more energy to operate. If you would like to find out what is causing the problems you are experiencing, hire a contractor in your area who provides air-conditioning services.
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