Air duct cleaning is a vital part of regular home maintenance, but it is very often neglected by homeowners. Dryer vent cleaning is another one of those little things that can cause property damage and raise your energy bill considerably without even drying your clothes efficiently. In this article I want to cover these issues and give you the homeowner a few tips on what to look for when deciding on cleaning your ducts and dryer vents.
For those who don’t know your air ducts are part of a system engineered to either remove heat from your home or to add heat to your home to maintain a certain comfort level that our ancestors did not have. A basic air duct system consists of supply ducts, which supply the conditioned air to the space that needs to be temperature controlled. Second, there are return ducts, which return the air to the system to be reconditioned and filtered before it passes over the evaporator coil. There are different types of material the duct can be made of as well such as: duct board, flex duct, or sheet metal. Knowing the type of duct your system uses will help you when talking to a professional about cleaning them Dryer vent cleaning.
How often should your air ducts be cleaned? The EPA recommends around every two years. In my experience as an Hvac technician there are signs to look for when evaluating the decision to get them cleaned. Some signs you may want to get your air ducts cleaned my be that you are dusting more than usual. Another sign may be that on the supply duct side, there seems to be dust collecting on the area of your grills. If either of these are the case call a professional to get the system evaluated and make sure you don’t have a mold problem. Mold can be growing in your system, but it needs two things to grow, moisture and food. If theses two things are present it will grow and the air circulation can spread spores throughout your home and can cause respiratory problems for the inhabitants. Proper maintenance can help prevent this from occurring such as maintaining a good filter, preferably a pleated filter, which has more surface area and filters out debris down to.5 microns in some instances. Furthermore, cleaning your ducts and air handler, including the blower wheel and heating system and give your system longevity.
Dryer vent cleaning is a vital part of the home maintenance regime as well. Some of use are new to home ownership and home maintenance, so we have to read articles like this one to help us along. A homes dryer vent is usually an insert make of sheet metal that directs heat and lint outside of the home. In any case the lint seems not to agree with the laws of gravity and tends to stick together on the inside of the insert walls and begins to block the air flow and exiting of lint, which results in the dryer not drying your clothes very well and in some instances retaining enough heat inside of the dryer vent to ignite the lint inside of the insert causing a fast burning dryer vent fire. Prevention is the key to anything and the same holds for this. Keeping your lint screen clear is very important and one of the simplest ways to help prevent build-up of lint, but even thou this is done dryer vents should be cleaned at lease once a year to maintain your dryers energy efficiency and keeping your energy bills low.