Did you know that the average home loses 20% of its conditioned or heated air through leaky duct work? And that in older homes, this loss can be upwards of 40%? This means that a hefty percentage of your hard earned cooling and heating dollars escape through the attic or crawlspace.
You see, back before the 1990s energy was cheap. Builders simply slotted duct pieces into one another and held the whole thing together with some screws and maybe some duct tape. In this case, duct tape was literally a band-aid solution, since it actually has no more insulating value than, you guessed it, a band-aid.
But the real problem with leaky ducts is that not only do you lose the cooled or heated air in the living spaces of your home, but as any high school science teacher will tell you, nature can’t stand a vacuum. So all that lost conditioned air has to be replaced with something, and that something is dirty, humid outdoor air which gets sucked back into the house any way it can, typically through cracks around doors and windows.
Not only do you lose energy, but you also suck in polluted outdoor air that bypasses your ductwork and furnace or air handler, including any air-cleaning system you have to trap pollen, mold, and other outdoor contaminants.
The simple solution to leaky ductwork woes is to have them sealed, and by “sealed”, we don’t mean with duct tape. Despite its name, duct tape is really not for ducts. It has neither the sticking nor the insulating power to do the job.
That’s why it’s a good idea to have your ductwork professionally sealed. Not only do we have the correct tools and sealants to do the job, but we rebalance your duct work after the sealing is done in order to prevent outdoor air from infiltrating your home at unauthorized locations.
If you would like to save energy and money with well sealed ductwork, give us a call today at 317.846.0434 or schedule an appointment online. We can help.