Thursday, 18 August 2011

Get Healthier Air by Cleaning Your Air Ducts

By Roger Clements


Home owners maintain their house for a variety of reasons including avoiding costly repairs and replacements, maintaining the value of their home, keeping it looking good and having a safe and healthy environment for their family. Of course, the health and safety of your family is the most important of these reasons. The results of air duct cleaning make it one of the most vital procedures to include in the maintenance routine of for your home.

Having your air conditioning and heating systems serviced regularly is one of the most prevalent home maintenance procedures because if HVAC system breaks your home will be uncomfortable and replacing them is expensive. Servicing your heating and cooling system is critical to keeping them performing optimally and should entail cleaning the cooling coils, drain pans, fans and heat exchangers. Cleaning of these components can can result in dust, debris, mold or allergens getting into your duct work which will then be released into your home. Because of this it is very important to clean your air ducts at the same time your air conditioner is cleaned.

5 reasons your HVAC system and your air ducts should be cleaned as part of a regular home maintenance routine are:

1. Savings. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has said that removing even four-tenths of an inch of dust from cooling system coils can reduce energy consumption by up to twenty one percent. This is a considerable savings on your utility bill.

2. System life. Estimate are that nearly 9 out of 10 central heating and air conditioning systems fail or breakdown because a proper maintenance routine was not performed. Replacement parts and labor for an HVAC system can be very expensive and total replacement can cost thousands.

3. Air quality in your home. Many people consider air vent cleaning essential to maintaining healthy indoor air. Dust, allergens (pollen, pet dander) and toxins (mold, mildew, rodent droppings) are regularly found in air ducts. When air vents are not cleaned regularly these things can be broadcast into your house. Even if no family members have allergies many of these particles can bring about severe sicknesses, among other things.

4. Allergies. If members of your family suffer from allergies, air duct cleaning is often times required to provide a healthy environment for allergy sufferers. Air duct cleaning can drastically reduce the allergens in a house.

5. Odor. A musty smell in your house can indicate that dust, mold or mildew may be in in the air ducts that no amount of air fresheners or candles will get rid of. Air duct cleaning will get rid of the odor almost completely.

In addition to routine cleaning, it is recommended that you get your air ducts cleaned professionally after any of the following events: water entering your air ducts (leaky water pipe, leak in your roof, trouble with the drip pan in your air conditioner, a flood (in your home or in your town), a major fire nearby, mold was found during servicing of your heating or air conditioning system, rodents or insects are in your duct work, a big home remodeling project, you move into a new home.




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