3 Ways Bad Ducts Can Compromise The Air Quality In Your Home

Maintaining the quality of your home's duct system is essential when it comes to being able to keep a constant and comfortable temperature inside your living space. While most homeowners know that faulty ducts could increase energy usage and make their HVAC system work harder, few take the time to realize how bad ducts could be compromising their indoor air quality.

Here are three ways bad ducts could be compromising the quality of the air your family breathes each day.

1. Disconnected ducts circulate contaminants.

It's common for one piece of duct to become disconnected from the piece of duct adjoining it. A disconnected duct will still suck in air from its surroundings, raising the potential for contaminants to be circulated throughout your home.

Ducts are typically found in attics or crawl spaces. These areas can play host to insects, rodents, dust, and mold. When a duct becomes disconnected in these areas, the surrounding contaminants are sucked into the duct system and distributed throughout your home. Have an HVAC professional inspect your home's ductwork regularly to ensure there are no disconnected sections.

2. Leaky ducts contribute to the backdraft of combustion appliances.

If your home is serviced by combustion appliances (like a natural gas water heater or furnace), then you likely know how important it is for the exhaust gases created by these appliances to travel through the flue and safely out of your home. When you have leaky ducts inside your home, a zone of negative air pressure is created. This negative pressure prevents harmful exhaust gases from being able to exit your home through the flue, and they are distributed inside your home instead (commonly referred to as a backdraft).

Too much exhaust gas could prove deadly, since these gases are laden with carbon monoxide. Regular inspection of your home's ducts will ensure that leaky ducts don't contribute to the backdraft of combustion appliances inside your home in the future.

3. Leaky ducts could increase humidity levels in your home.

When the ducts that carry air to and from your HVAC unit begin to leak, the humidity level in your home's air can begin to fluctuate. Your HVAC unit will no longer be able to control moisture levels in the air, resulting in an increase in indoor humidity.

More moisture in the air means a higher potential for mold growth, whose spores can significantly compromise the quality of the air inside your home. Having an HVAC professional, like those at Service Plus, inspect your home's ducts for leaks will help you maintain a more constant humidity level.

Keeping a close eye on the quality of your home's ducts is a simple way to ensure that the quality of your indoor air doesn't become compromised in the future.

Share