First Choice Heating & Cooling Blog: Archive for the ‘Indoor Air Quality’ Category

How Air Sealing Can Boost Your Indoor Air Quality

Monday, November 25th, 2024
happy-family-with-dog

Maintaining good indoor air quality (IAQ) is essential for a healthy, comfortable home. Unfortunately, many homeowners don’t realize how much the integrity of their home’s “envelope”—the walls, roof, windows, and doors—affects their indoor air. When small gaps and cracks develop around these areas, outdoor pollutants, allergens, and dust can sneak into your living spaces, impacting your air quality and even your health.

Air sealing is one of the most effective ways to boost indoor air quality and improve overall energy efficiency in the home.

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How Your Ductwork Can Get Damaged in the First Place

Monday, September 9th, 2024
ductwork-getting-repaired

When it comes to the efficiency of your HVAC system, you may not often think about the ductwork hidden within the walls, ceilings, and floors of your home. However, this network of ducts plays a crucial role in delivering conditioned air to every room. If these ducts become damaged, it can lead to significant issues such as wasted energy, increased utility bills, and a system that struggles to maintain your desired comfort level. Understanding how ductwork can get damaged in the first place can help you take proactive steps to protect your HVAC system and know when you need duct repair in Fenton, MI.

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How an Energy Recovery Ventilator Can Help Your Home in Summer

Monday, June 17th, 2024
happy-family-with-dog

As the summer sun beats down, keeping your home cool becomes a top priority. One of the most effective solutions to achieve a balance between staying cool and staying energy efficient is with an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) in Brighton, MI

In this post, we’ll delve into how an ERV works and the benefits it offers during the hot summer months.

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Can My AC Handle the Humidity of Summer?

Monday, May 6th, 2024
humidity-written-on-window

As the scorching heat of summer approaches, many homeowners start to wonder: Can my air conditioner handle the humidity as well as the heat? 

It’s a common question, and we’re here to shed some light on this topic. While air conditioners do remove some humidity from the air as they cool your home, they’re not specifically designed for this purpose. In this blog post, we’ll delve into why ACs might struggle with humidity, the limitations they face, and our recommended solution: a whole-house dehumidifier in Brighton, MI.

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How a Malfunctioning Furnace Can Affect Your Home’s Air Quality

Monday, January 3rd, 2022

woman-with-allergiesWhen you run your HVAC system, it circulates air throughout the house, first drawing it in through return air ducts and then sending it back out it the rooms through the supply ducts. During the winter, you’ll run the furnace to heat up this air, and that means the effects of the furnace are felt all around the house. So it makes sense that if the furnace isn’t working right, it can have an effect on your home’s indoor air quality … aside from making it less hot, of course.

Below we’ll look at several ways a malfunctioning furnace can have a negative effect on the air quality in your house.

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What’s the Difference Between a Heat and Energy Recovery Ventilator?

Monday, November 22nd, 2021

question-markWhen you’re looking for better indoor air quality in Flushing, MI combined with savings with your heating and cooling, an option we recommend is to install either a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) or energy recovery ventilator (ERV). Our HVAC professionals can install one of these devices into your home’s ventilation system to give you the power to circulate fresh air through the house without putting extra pressure on either the heater or the air conditioning system. An HRV or an ERV is a year-round helper when it comes to having healthier air without sacrificing money to run the heater or AC more often.

But does it matter which one you get? What’s the difference between these two devices? These are good questions, and we’ll get to them below.

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The Hot, Stuffy Home—You May Need Air Duct Sealing!

Monday, June 21st, 2021

duct-sealingYour summer season inside your home has gotten off to a rough start. Even though you have a central air conditioning system that you’ve relied on before, something isn’t working right. It’s not just that the house isn’t cooling down enough, even though the air conditioner is sending out cooled air. It’s also that the house feels stuffy and humid, and your electric bills are higher than ever before. What’s going on?

There are several possibilities, but all of these problems are signs of a particular problem the house may have: leaking air ducts. When you’ve got leaky ductwork, it will create a host of problems like the ones we’ve already listed. If you’d like to have comfort restored in your house and an HVAC system that does what it’s supposed to do, call us for air duct sealing in Brighton, MI.

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The “Wheezing” House—You May Need Duct Cleaning

Monday, November 23rd, 2020

duct-cleaning-with-vacuumWhenever we talk about duct cleaning in Fenton, MI, people start to wonder if this service is necessary. Unfortunately, there are plenty of disreputable “services” that offer duct cleaning at extremely low prices, then deliver almost nothing except a quick vacuum of the inside of some vent openings. That isn’t the type duct cleaning we do: we provide a thorough service that pressurizes the entire duct system to agitate dust and dirt from it, and then we use spot cleaning with rotary brushes to ensure we did a complete job.

And we can assure you that real duct cleaning is important for a house. The best way to describe this is for you to picture the ductwork as like the nostrils of your nose. When the passages are unobstructed, you breathe easy and don’t even have to think about it. When they’re congested, you’ll start wheezing and expend more energy. It’s not pleasant at all, and this is what happens when your ductwork is filled with dust and other debris—it starts to “wheeze” and consume more energy to work. 

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You May Be Due For Duct Cleaning If You Notice This …

Monday, December 23rd, 2019

duct-cleaning-before-afterHaving the ducts of your home cleaned isn’t a task you probably have on a regular “to-do” list the same way you have heating and air conditioning maintenance. This is because duct cleaning isn’t something homes need done every year. In general, we recommend duct cleaning on a schedule of every 3 to 5 years or as needed.

The “as needed” part is what we wish to discuss here. Ductwork can become so choked with dust, lint, and other debris that it will end up affecting the HVAC system in multiple ways. Because you can’t easily see the interior of the ductwork, you may not know you’ve got a problem at first. We’ve put together a list of indicators that you’re due for duct cleaning.

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A Late Season HVAC Fix: Air Duct Sealing

Monday, March 18th, 2019

duct-sealing-with-caulkingIt’s the official end of winter and the start of spring. Your HVAC system is going to make the change from cold weather to warmer weather, although the process can be a slow one with occasional returns of colder temperatures. You may still need to schedule heater service in Highland, MI before the warmer weather settles in.

We want to address a particular issue with your HVAC system that affects the heating system as well as the cooling system: leaks along the ducts. If your ventilation system needs sealing, we recommend you have it done as soon as possible so you have quality heating for the next few weeks, and so you’re ready to go with your air conditioning when you need it.

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