Taking time to check your home’s Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) can be especially important during cold
weather months. You may not be aware of it until you switch on the heat and keep all your windows
shut but if your air ducts are gently blowing particulates, pollutants and other respiratory risks into your
living space you can become the “canary in the coal mine.” But there’s really no need for you to have to
personally experience the wheezing, congestion, dizziness or fatigue that are the revealing symptoms
that something’s definitely not right with your home’s IAQ.
In an article on his website a few years ago, Bob Vila, the home improvement TV guru listed several
suggestions on how to know when it’s appropriate to contact a professional duct cleaning service for a
consultation and estimate. https://www.bobvila.com/articles/cleaning-air-ducts/
If you know that your home’s HVAC furnace filters have not been regularly replaced, it may be a good
idea to do a furnace tune-up, with or without the help of a professional HVAC technician. If the furnace
tune-up and condition of the air filter don’t reveal clear and obvious evidence of particulate buildup, you
may not need to have your ducts cleaned right away.
But if you’re not sure, Bob Vila recommended putting eighth inch thick air vent “filters over… your hot
air supply registers (like this one on Amazon.) …Check those filters after a couple of weeks to see what
they’ve picked up.” These electrostatically charged polyester foam filters are designed to remove dust
and contaminants from the air.
As a final test, Bob Vila recommended a close inspection of any open gaps around your duct registers:
“Are they discolored and coated with a fine, dark dust? If you remove the cover, reach into the duct, and
wipe its sides with a damp rag, does it come out filthy?”
You should take the time (1 to 2 hours) to check all your registers or duct grilles. “Dust that appears to
be coming through ductwork may in fact be entering through the slim sliver of a gap” between the duct
and the surrounding sheetrock of the wall or ceiling. That small gap of space around the duct may seem
unimportant but it creates a pathway for heated air to leak out. Only instead of heating the air outside
your home like an open window does, open gaps around your supply ducts bleed off heated air into
your attic and they allow contaminants to negatively impact your IAQ. Before you reassemble all of your
duct registers, buy some caulk, insulation strips or expanding foam insulation to seal the gap around
each one of your ducts. They’re very inexpensive and you may see energy cost savings of 10 to 20 %.