A warm summer day is a pleasant experience in Michigan. A warm, humid, summer day is much less pleasant. And a hot, humid day—that’s when people stay indoors and crank up their ACs.
Why does humidity make it feel like it’s much hotter than it is? We all know the feeling of a damp and muggy day, but is the humidity actually making it hotter outside?
One of the jobs we do for our customers is to help their homes enjoy better air quality. Indoor comfort is about more than controlling the temperature with an air conditioner and a heater. It’s also about keeping the air fresh and humidity under control with excellent ventilation.
But how can you properly ventilate your home during extremely hot and cold days? Opening windows and doors just isn’t a good solution because it ruins all the work your AC or heater is doing and makes you uncomfortable. Do you just have to accept stale indoor air on those days?
Not at all! This is why we recommend you look into getting an energy recovery ventilator installed in your home’s HVAC system.
If you had to take a second look at the headline to this blog because you’ve never thought about having your home’s ducts cleaned, you’re not alone. The reason for this is that it’s hard to remember to keep something clean when you can’t see it! Ducts are hidden inside the walls, ceilings, and attic of a house, and it’s easy for people to forget they’re there and doing an important job circulating hot and cool air.
Dust and lint build-up inside ductwork happens over time—there’s no way to avoid it. Scheduling regular cleaning every 3 to 5 years will prevent the ventilations system from becoming too dirty.
But … why do this at all? Do clean ducts really matter if you don’t have to look at them?
How often to you think about the condition of your home’s ductwork? Our guess: not often. This is almost by design. The ducts in a house hide from sight, traveling through spaces between walls and through the attic. Exposed ducts may look fine in commercial buildings with high ceilings, but that’s not the appearance you want for a cozy and pleasant home.
Residential ductwork does need some consideration however. Ducts that have suffered damage will lead to poor heating and cooling performance and rises in utility bills. Professional duct testing and sealing can solve this issue.
But there’s another concern with ducts to think about, and that’s keeping them clean.
Indoor air quality: people are often surprised to discover how serious a problem this is. The air inside buildings can be three to four times more polluted than the air outside, which is exactly the opposite of what many people assume is true.
If you have problems with pollutants in your home’s air, and standard indoor air quality air filters aren’t adequately solving the problem, you may need a Fenton, MI air purifier installed. That’s where we come in. We’ll find the right purifier to do the job, and match it with the right set of filters. (Purifiers almost always work in conjunction with filters, with the filters handling the larger particles and the purifiers targeting the ones that slip through the filters.)
You’ve had your air conditioner running steadily for a few months at this point, so you’ve already had a chance to see what your summer utility bills look like. Have they been noticeably higher this month? As we’ve pointed out before, this often indicates a repair need in the air conditioning system. We strongly recommend calling us for repairs as soon as possible: we’ll find out what’s wrong and fix it so that not only will your bills drop, but you’ll be in less danger of the air conditioner failing on you during a hot late summer day.
However, we may discover something outside of the AC unit itself is the source of those high bills. Another part of the HVAC system that frequently “steals” money from you without you realizing it is the ductwork.
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Call First Choice Heat for all your Heating, Air Conditioning, Indoor Air Quality, Water Heater and Gas Fireplace needs.
