What is Aeroseal Duct Sealing?
The Aeroseal air duct sealing process is a way to reduce both duct leakage and energy use while improving your home’s indoor air quality.
Duct leaks can be difficult to find with much of your ductwork hidden between walls, floors and ceilings. Repairing them the old way involves mastic and tape. This method only allows repairs on ductwork that can be seen though, and is also time consuming and expensive. Even then, small defects will remain. In order to do an effective job, all of the holes in your ductwork should be sealed from the inside out. There are two ways to do this. One way is to hire a couple, possibly singing, chipmunks…, or use Aeroseal.
Aeroseal provides an effective and more cost efficient way to handle leaking ductwork issues, and backs up its work with a 10 year warranty! The chipmunks on the other hand can be very unreliable.
The Aeroseal process
The Aeroseal duct sealing process is one in which a UL tested and approved polymer is injected into your home’s ductwork to seal up holes and cracks up to 5/8″ wide with no limits on length.
- All registers are blocked off with foam and sticky plastic.
- A preseal test is done to measure the current leakage level of your ductwork.
- We cover your furniture with plastic to protect it.
- The sealant is injected into the ductwork while the ductwork is pressurized. The constant airflow allows the sealant material to find and adhere to the edges of the holes and cracks inside your ductwork. Effectively closinging them up to prevent any future air loss. A computer and sensors are used to measure and control the process, while fans and air scrubbers are used to protect and preserve your in-home air quality.
- A postseal test is done to measure the improvements. A report is created and given to the homeowner that records the decreased air loss and its results are supported with a 10 year warranty.
The Aeroseal duct sealing process won the “Best of What’s New” award from Popular Science magazine, “Best New Home Product” from This Old House, and received “The Energy 100” award from the US Department of Energy.
After the Aeroseal process has been completed, the results will improve your home’s comfort with even room temperatures and cleaner air while increasing your system’s energy efficiency.
Why do I need Aeroseal?
If you have a drafty window, leaky plumbing or a leaking roof you get them repaired. But what if your ductwork is leaky? Why would there be leaks, and does it really matter?
Leaks are caused by a variety of factors including the age of the dwelling, type of construction, type of ductwork and local building codes. Now I know what you’re thinking, most of your ductwork is in condition space, (areas heated and cooled) and any leakage would vent into said conditioned space. Isn’t this the air’s ultimate destination anyway? Truthfully, most homes have duct work in both conditioned and unconditioned space, but even if all of your ductwork is in conditioned space that doesn’t mean the air should go wherever it feels like.
Think of a window air conditioner, when in use, that room may be comfortable, but the rest of the house is not. To get the rest of the house to a bearable temperature, you must lower the temperature of the unit and increase the the fan speed, making the room with the window unit too cold while hardly cooling the other rooms. This occurs because the cold air coming out of the unit is not being effectively circulated throughout the home. If your ductwork is leaky the same problem can arise. Not only to your cooling system, but also with your heating system, regardless of what type of system you have. If your conditioned air is not being circulated effectively, you will have hot and cold rooms.
What about the ductwork that is not in conditioned space, such as your attic, basement, or both? This is where leaks can become more of a problem.
The first problem is the reduction of your system’s effectiveness. If your basement or attic isn’t conditioned, the conditioned air will escape out of your ductwork’s defects, going into those non-conditioned spaces. You’re basically opening up a window to the outside, encouraging your HVAC system to heat or cool those areas. This is not only inefficient, but the increased load can decrease the lifespan of your air conditioner, call for more use of your heat pump than normal, and ultimately decrease the unit’s overall effectiveness of maintaining your home’s comfort.
The second problem is that not only can air leak out but unclean air and contaminants from crawl spaces, attics and basements can be pulled into your ductwork. These contaminants will now be circulated and pushed into your home for your family to breathe. The end result being excessive dust, odor issues, and the clogging of your filters which can cause air quality problems for your living spaces.
Contact K-Wood LLC today at 844-987-0234… and speak with one of our trained AeroSeal technicians about improving the Air Quality in your home, while extending the life of your heating and cooling systems.
