If Your Air Ducts Are Leaking, You're Paying The Price

Air ducts in most homes leak at some level. In fact, the federal Energy Star program estimates that in the average home as much as 20 percent of the conditioned air moving through ducts can be lost to leaks. If your air ducts are leaking, you’re likely paying the price. And not just in terms of higher energy bills. You may have also noticed that your home isn’t as comfortable as it once was.

Here’s what happens when air ducts leak:

As your air conditioner or heat pump generates cooled air, the system pushes that air into the ducts. In an ideal ductwork system, all of that air moves through the ducts, and ends up in the living spaces in your home through the supply-air registers. But when your air ducts are leaky, some of that cooled air is lost, and you don’t receive the full measure of conditioned air that was generated in the heat pump or A/C. (The same thing happens with heating.)

Leaky air ducts can lead to various undesirable results including:

Decreased home comfort – The process is fairly simple to understand. With less cooled air reaching your rooms, your home won’t be comfortable to live in.
High energy bills – If ducts leak, your air conditioner will have to compensate for the air that is lost, doing more work than it should have to. This leads to higher energy bills and more wear and tear on your equipment.
Poor home safety – The backdrafting of carbon monoxide is a common safety hazard that occurs when ducts leak. If your home uses a gas-powered furnace, water heater or clothes dryer, this should be a top concern. In warm climates like ours, it’s also common for leaky ducts to draw pollution from the outdoors during the cooling season, creating poor air quality inside your home.

Want to avoid paying the price for leaky air ducts? Get in touch with NisAir Air Conditioning & Heating and schedule an evaluation today. We’ve been serving homeowners in Martin, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Indian River counties since 1973.