Heating and AC Repair: Should I Wrap My Heating and Air Ducts? | Fort Worth, TX
Are you looking to minimize the amount of energy that you’re losing every day through your air ducts? If you are then you’re definitely going to want to think about insulation. Or maybe you’ve been told to think about it by friends and family who have already done it. Well, we’re going to talk about whether this is something that you should actually be doing or whether it’s actually going to be a waste of your time and your money in Fort Worth, TX.
If you’re looking at different types of heating and AC repair you may actually be thinking about getting your ducts wrapped. Maybe someone has even mentioned it to you because they’ve been told that it causes less of the heat or cool air that you’re pushing through those ducts to get out. But is that really true? Is that air really getting through the duct work and leaching into your home in ways that it’s not supposed to? The short answer is that it actually could be and the Department of Energy says that you should absolutely be wrapping your ducts to make sure that you’re getting the best efficiency.
The duct work in your home is designed to branch all the way from the lowest levels of your home to the highest levels, whether you use all of those areas or not. And what that means is that the ducts have to push air through a whole lot of space. You absolutely want to make sure that you’re getting all of the air that you possibly can to exactly the right areas. But what do you do if you’re not sure that’s actually happening? You might need heating and AC repair.
The Process of Insulation
Wrapping your heating and air ducts is definitely going to be a simple enough process for a professional to take care of for you. It’s really just what it sounds like, wrapping a special wrap all the way around the ducts to make sure that nothing gets out. If you have a small leak in your duct work or if you’re noticing gaps between some of the different connections this can actually help to cut down on the leaks from this as well. It may seem like a very basic heating and AC repair, but it’s one that could pay off in the long run.
You’re also going to find that air doesn’t leak through the ducts themselves. If you’ve ever actually touched the duct work that moves through your home you’ve probably noticed that it feels like whatever temperature air it’s pushing through your home. That means that the air is actually getting out. And if the air is getting out you’re not getting as much efficiency as you should be. By wrapping your ductwork and taking care of this minor heating and AC repair you’re going to have less of a problem with this process.
Why It Works
When you wrap the duct work with something you’re sealing in the air. Think about it like wrapping yourself in a blanket. When you do, it keeps your body heat in and you start to warm up. It insulates you against whatever is going on outside of the blanket. The same thing happens when you put cold or hot beverages into a thermos. You’re going to retain the temperature of the liquid because the insulation is going to protect that liquid from the outside temperatures.
If you’re insulating your duct work you’re doing the same thing. You’re taking care of a very minor heating and AC repair and making sure that the duct work can’t leach out any of that cold or hot air. The ‘blanket’ around the outside acts the same way that the exterior of your thermos does, keeping all of the air inside the duct rather than allowing any of it to be contaminated by the air outside of that duct. All it takes is a professional to take a closer look and get the whole thing taken care of in no time at all.
What Else Can I Do?
If you’re working on construction in your home or if you are building a brand-new home you also have the option of closing your duct work inside the walls or making sure that it’s sealed as much as possible. This could prevent some level of heating and AC repair over the short term. But keep in mind that this isn’t going to take care of all of the problems. You’re still going to need to be careful about the air getting out of the ducts, it just won’t go very far in these cases.
The benefit to having your duct work sealed into a wall is that the cold or warm air that does get out is mostly just going to be trapped around the exterior of the duct work, which could act as a type of insulation on its own. This isn’t going to be as energy efficient as actually wrapping the ducts, but it can help in some ways and it’s definitely better than the duct work being open to the rest of the home. You may need minor heating and AC repair, but with this process it’s going to be minimal.
You want to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to keep your Fort Worth, TX home a whole lot more comfortable and that’s going to start with making sure that you are protecting the duct work. Whether you need a lot of protection around the ducts in your home or you haven’t even noticed a problem yet, this is type of heating and AC repair that can be done relatively easily. It’s also going to make quite a bit of difference for something that might seem so minimal. All you need to do is talk with the professionals at One Hour Air Conditioning and Heating to find out how you can make this heating and AC repair work in your Fort Worth, TX home.