What To Know About Air Conditioning Ducts

What is an air duct?

Well, as your air is “conditioned,” that is, when it is processed into something that is fit to be distributed throughout your home (as in the case of a central air system), the ducts are the avenues by which it gets distributed. In many cases, however, too much of the air that flows through the duct system gets lost.

Why? Because it is leaking. And why is that, you ask?

Because there is something faulty in the duct system itself. Maybe there are improper seals. Maybe there is poor construction. A lot of these problems happen right from the outset because the initial work wasn’t done the right way. No one expects the average consumer to be intimate with all the technical aspects of a duct system, but it doesn’t hurt to have some familiarity with what we’re talking about, because you’ll have a little easier time in the event you’ll have to have service on that aspect of the air conditioning system.

Not only that, you may able to determine more about the “symptoms” of what may be going wrong with your air conditioner. For example, when you see a spike in your utility bills that may be even higher than you are used to during the summer months, but don’t detect that you are running the AC at an unusually high level for the time of year, there is something you should be able to point to.

If you find that there are certain rooms or areas in your home that are strangely difficult to cool off, when other areas are just fine, then you have to ask questions about how well your air is being distributed to that area. That can relate directly to the air ducts. if the air just doesn’t feel right in a room, you know that there is something wrong. You need to know where your ducts are.

Do you have a basement? The crawl space is an obvious area. How about the garage? Many homes have an attic as well. Do you know anything about the construction of your home? Are you aware of what a poorly sealed duct looks like? Do you have the proper sealant to do the job yourself?

You might, but that is only one step. It is strongly suggested that you contact an air conditioning professional to make sure that you aren’t losing a lot of energy efficiency by not having the proper ductwork in place.