Having good quality air in your home is crucial for your health and health of your family. Poor indoor quality can lead to air pollution, mold growth and all sorts of health problems. When you clean the air cooling and heating system, made from components of forced air system, you’re doing air duct cleaning. It can be done at any time and not only when you feel that the air in the room is musty or stuffy.
Air duct cleaning requires a cleaning schedule because there are a lot of components that need to be cleaned like:
- Grillers
- Diffusers
- Air ducts, both on the supply and return air
- Fans and fan housing
- Heat exchangers
In order for the cooling/heating system to operate property all these components have to be installed, maintained and operated correctly. Depending on the frequency of use, dust, pollen and other contaminant particles can contaminate the system. Aside from staying in the system, if moisture is present in your home, mold can easily develop in the air ducts.
When is air duct cleaning required?
In order to check if dust and mold deposit is collected in the air ducts and how much, a professional service does a visual inspection. If there isn’t any, you can skip the testing. Sometimes, the return registers might have some dust particles on it. But if the vents are clean, then you only need to remove and wash the register and not the entire air duct system.
Air duct cleaning is required if you notice that you or your family member is showing signs of allergies liked to indoor pollution. Also make sure to check with a medical professional what is the cause of those allergies.
Cleaning of air ducts is required especially if you find any bugs in them. Once you consult with a professional air duct cleaning service and they recommend you that cleaning is required, don’t postpone it. It’s better to have a properly functioning cooling/heating system and to avoid potential damage. Not to mention the health hazards.
There are, however, steps you can take in order to reduce the air duct contamination and thus you won’t need to clean them so frequently:
- If your heating/cooling system has the possibility to include high-efficiency air filters, discuss with the manufacturer and see to get it installed
- The filters should be replaced on a regular basis. See with the manufacture what is the most optimal replacement schedule.
- Make sure that the filters are installed correctly and that there are no gaps hear the holder.
- When cleaning the cooling and heating system, check the cooling pans an draining pipes
- If you’re doing renovation in your home, make sure that you seal the return and supply registers. This way you will avoid system contamination
Having good quality air in your home is important. A contaminated air duct system can pose a serious health risk to you and your family, especially if there is mold in it. Thanks to the air circulation, the mold spores can travel to other parts of your home and if they find a suitable environment (moisture and warmth) you can have mold infestation on your hand and you will need to perform mold removal and remediation.
