4 Effects of Leaky Ducts on Your Home’s Energy Efficiency

It pays to properly maintain your air ducts. Clean, efficient air ducts provide healthy indoor air quality. A compromised ventilation system and air ducts can negatively affect your home’s energy efficiency and indoor air quality. To give you an idea of how air ducts affect your home, here Entergis Testing and Sealing, LLC shares four common effects of leaky ducts on your home’s energy efficiency and indoor air quality.

They allow bad air inside. Faulty, leaky air ducts are bad news. Pollutants and other allergens can pass through gaps in the HVAC return ducts and into the ventilation system. The bad air in other rooms can even contaminate cleaner rooms. When your air conditioner is on, it can also pull air from musty spaces inside your home, which can affect your air conditioner and cause damage. Damaged air conditioners tend to consume more energy, increasing your home’s energy consumption.

They create negative pressure. The intake of contaminated air creates another concern by building negative air pressure inside your home. Negative air pressure may cause more air to leak into the house through other passages like windows, doors and the basement. The air that passes through from these exterior leaks will be added to the already contaminated air inside. 

They increase the risk of back drafting. Back drafting is the term for when harmful gases from combustion appliances come back into the house instead of exiting through the air ducts. When this happens, indoor air quality is decreased, which can result in carbon monoxide poisoning. It’s best to call a trusted expert to repair the leaky air ducts and prevent the harmful risks of back drafting.

They negatively affect HVAC performance. Your HVAC system is the one responsible for filtering the air. Excessive leakage in your air ducts can stress your HVAC system. It can also result in poor performance due to overheating. When it’s overworked, it requires more energy consumption, which will lead to an increase in your energy bills. 

If you need to check your ducts for leakage, Entergis Testing and Sealing, LLC. offers professional duct leakage testing services. Call us at (225) 445-2362 or fill out our contact form to schedule an appointment.