{"id":919,"date":"2020-11-09T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/?p=919"},"modified":"2020-11-09T12:37:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T17:37:46","slug":"an-important-winter-hvac-prep-tip-seal-the-ductwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/home-performance\/an-important-winter-hvac-prep-tip-seal-the-ductwork\/","title":{"rendered":"An Important Winter HVAC Prep Tip: Seal the Ductwork"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-838\" src=\"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/duct-sealing-with-caulking-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"duct-sealing-with-caulking\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/duct-sealing-with-caulking-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/duct-sealing-with-caulking-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/duct-sealing-with-caulking-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/duct-sealing-with-caulking.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Have you already scheduled heating maintenance for the fall? This is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> most important service you can have done to prepare for the winter, since it gives your heating system the best chance to sweep through the winter without problems, no matter how cold the outside may get. The peace of mind you receive from maintenance is well worth it\u2014and you\u2019ll save money on heating costs as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But you may need additional service to help your heating system operate at peak level for the season. You may not know if, but the ductwork in your house might suffer from numerous leaks and gapping. A loss of the airtight integrity of the ducts will reduce the effectiveness of your heater and lead to inflated bills. It can even lower the quality of the indoor air.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The way to solve this problem is with professional <\/span><a href=\"\/service-areas\/howell-mi-hvac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">air sealing in Howell, MI<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is a service we offer. You may not need the work, but if you do, the difference it makes is tremendous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How Do I Know I Have Leaking Air Ducts?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, that\u2019s probably your first question. You can\u2019t see most of the ductwork, so how do you know it has leaks?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, the easiest way is to schedule duct testing with our team. We recommend homeowners have tests for their ducts done every few years to catch developing issues with leaking ducts that often don\u2019t show signs early. If you\u2019ve never done testing for the ducts before, this is a good season to schedule it\u2014a prep step for the winter you may not have realized you needed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are other signs you can watch for that indicate leaking ducts:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Low airflow coming through the vents.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uneven heating in the rooms, with hot and cold spots showing up in the rooms more distant along the ventilation system.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dusty and moldy odors from the vents.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The heater short-cycling (turning off before completing a full heating cycle).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rattling sounds from the vents.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A steep rise in heating costs that you can\u2019t account for.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although there are other possible causes for each of these, they still point toward issues that require professional attention. We can find out if you need duct sealing.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can\u2019t I Seal My Own Ducts?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No\u2014you don\u2019t have the tools and training to locate them, access them, and seal them. Because of the existence of \u201cduct tape,\u201d people make the assumption that sealing duct leaks is a DIY task. It isn\u2019t, and duct tape is misnamed: it is useful for almost everything <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">except<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ducts. The heat changes in ducts causes the tape to turn brittle and fall off after only a month or so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For a thorough job, you\u2019ll need our pros to first test the ducts and determine where the leaks are occurring. We can then access them and use special professional tools to seal the ductwork. These include special resin-based mastic sealant and metallic tapes. Once we finish sealing the ducts, we\u2019ll run a test again to ensure we got the job done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>If your home had a voice, <\/b><a href=\"\/contact\/schedule-service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>it would call \u2026 First Choice!<\/b><\/a><b> First Choice Heating &amp; Cooling offers duct sealing and other ductwork services.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may not need duct sealing, but if you do, the difference it makes is tremendous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[95,96,107],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-performance","tag-duct-sealing","tag-duct-testing","tag-howell"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstchoiceheat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}