Air ducts are a system of hollow tubes that carry cooled air throughout your home. They are located in your ceiling, walls, and floors and are arguably one of the most important parts of your air conditioning system because without them, the cooled air would have nowhere to go. Because they play such a large role, it’s important to take care of them and keep them in good shape. Read on to learn about the problems associated with leaky air ducts so you can prevent these issues from happening to you.
Higher monthly bills
According to experts, many things can cause an air duct to tear or leak. Usually an indicator of a leak is your monthly bill. When there is a leak anywhere in the air duct line it causes the cooled air that is going through the line to escape into the attic instead of its intended destination. You are basically paying lots of money to cool your attic, which makes no sense at all. Because cool air is not reaching the living portion of your home, your AC unit is constantly running in an attempt to cool the rooms below. And constant use of your AC system means you are using tremendous amounts of energy, which is something you will pay for every month. The Department of Energy says that a leak in your air duct causes your system to use 30% more energy, and that’s a lot!
Creates pressure inside the home
Leaky supply air ducts create what is called negative pressure, which means that outside air is being pulled inside your home. Negative pressure is dangerous and can cause severe health problems.
The Department of Energy says that in the summertime when your air conditioner has cooled the inside walls, warm moist outdoor air is sucked into the house through cracks in walls and around windows and doors. When this moist air hits inside chilled walls, it can condense into water and cause mold and mildew. Breathing in mold and mildew can cause serious long-term health effects and can be dangerous for your whole family, especially children and the elderly.
Negative pressure in the home can also create back drafting dangers. Back drafting is when vented appliances like dryers and fireplaces release fumes that should be going outside into your home. Fireplaces and dryers produce hazardous chemicals such as carbon monoxide but are designed to push these chemicals outside the home. If you have a leak in your air duct, the pressure will draw the air into your home and contaminate the air that you are breathing.
Causes hot and cold spots
Has there ever been a time when you went into a room and it felt like the air conditioner wasn’t on at all, and then went into another room and it was freezing cold? If the answer is yes, chances are there is a leak somewhere in one of your air ducts. Having a tear in a duct that leads to one room will cause all the cooled air to spill out of the line before it can enter the designated room.
If you have a leak in your system it causes the CFM’s, or the measurement of the velocity of the air as it flows in or out of a room, to go down. The uneven flow of air creates pressure differences which is why some rooms will get really cold and some will get really hot. All rooms should be basically the same temperature if the AC system is running correctly, and if not, then something is wrong.
Makes your home dirty!
Who wants to do extra house cleaning? We sure don’t, and we’re guessing you don’t either! And if you have a leaky air duct, you will be cleaning all the time. The holes inside the duct line will suck up dust, dirt, and other contaminants that are inside your home. After they have been sucked up through the holes, they get blown out through the air vents that are in each of your rooms. This not only causes your home to get covered in dirt and bacteria, but it also creates problems with the quality of air that you and your family breathe.
Now that you know about the problems associated with leaky air ducts, the next question is how do they tear and when should they be replaced?
Many times duct lines are torn during the installation process. If you have someone installing them who is not properly trained, they may cause a small tear. Rodents and pests are a big cause of torn lines. When it’s really hot or really cold outside they will chew up the line to try and get inside. To prevent animals from getting inside, it’s important to have your home, especially your attic, rodent proofed. Being mindful of pests is really important.
While there are ways to patch up a duct line, we recommend having the whole line replaced instead of patching one hole at a time. Patching the line still causes the system to work harder, which will still increase energy bills to a certain degree. Also, there are parts of the duct line that are hard to see and typically if there is a tear you can see, there is probably a tear somewhere you can’t see. The best thing to do is replace the whole line to ensure the problem is completely addressed.
As you can see, duct lines play an important role in your air conditioning system. Routine maintenance and checkups can keep your system running more efficiently and can save you from having larger, more expensive problems in the long run. Our technicians are trained to recognize even the smallest problem in your AC system, and fixing those problems while they are small is a lot better than waiting until they get out of hand! Give us a call today.
Sneezing, itchy eyes, runny nose, headache can only mean one thing: allergy season is upon us. And it seems that no matter how much we clean our house and wash our hands, there’s nothing we can do to escape the wrath of allergy season. Or is there?
When most of us think of allergies we think of pollen and ragweed, but there are plenty of things that give us those sinus headaches that come from inside our home. Recognizing allergens and taking the proper steps to eliminate them are an important part of home maintenance and extremely necessary for the health of your entire family. Read on to learn about allergens inside the home and what you can do to make sure they stay away.
Before we learn how make our home allergen free, let’s first take a look at the different allergens that contaminate our home:
Dust Mites: These tiny little creatures can be found all over the home and over 20 million Americans are allergic to them. They feed off of dead skin from humans and pets and are commonly found in carpeting, beds, and furniture. They are especially bad in Houston because they love our hot and humid weather and are unable to survive in colder, drier places.
Mold: High humidity and moisture are two of mold’s favorite things, again making Houston an optimal spot for mold growth. When you mix humid air, like the air outside, with cool air-conditioned air inside your home, you get condensation. The condensation then causes mold to grow. Mold is commonly seen growing on walls, especially in the bathroom and kitchen. Breathing in mold spores causes a variety of allergic reactions and can be dangerous to your health.
Mildew: If you have mold, you are going to have mildew. It is usually black in color and grows on walls, ceilings, and is commonly seen in the bathroom. Like mold, it thrives in hot, humid, and damp places.
Pet dander: While we love our pets and consider them part of our family, there are parts of them that we can be extremely allergic to. Pet dander is dead skin that all dogs and cats shed that gets on everything. It can even be found in homes without pets because it is easily transferred through the skin and clothes of visitors who do have them.
Rodents and bugs: Cockroaches are a common cause of allergies in the home and can even cause asthma in some people. Their saliva, feces, urine, and even their decomposing bodies all become mixed in with the air you breathe and can cause severe allergic reactions. Rodents like rats and mice are also allergy triggers because they leave behind contaminants through their skin, saliva, and urine.
Because most allergens are floating in the air we breathe, the easiest way to get rid of them is to purify and clean the air inside your home.
HVAC experts have determined that the air you breathe inside a house can be up to five times worse than the air you breathe outside, because inside the house is nothing but re-circulated air that you breathe in over and over again. Houston has some of the worst air in the United States because of all the pollen and refineries, and is the reason many Houstonians suffer from allergies throughout the year.
The best way to make sure the air inside your home is clean and contaminant free is to install filters inside your home that purify your air. Around 98% of the homes in Houston are built with a 1-inch box filter that is located in the wall or ceiling. While having a small filter is better than having none at all, it is still not efficient enough to clean your air the way you need it to. Box filters only filter out about 20% of dust and 5% of mold, mildew, and other bacteria.
Media Filters are an increased filtration system that can be installed to any home. They draw air in, clean it, and then recirculate the clean air throughout the home. They are more efficient than box filters because they can filter out 90% of all dust in the home and 90% of all mold, mildew, bacteria, and pollen. It will filter 5 times more dust and as much as 20 times more mold. When you have cleaner air going in and cleaner air going out, it will greatly improve the efficiency of your system while making your home that much more contaminant free.
If you are unsure about the quality of your indoor air, the best thing to do is have your home inspected by a professional. The experts at JW East know what to look for when it comes to home contaminants. We will thoroughly inspect your entire home and give you advice on what you can do to make the air quality in your home better.
One thing we can say about our Houston weather is that it is never predictable. One day it will be hot and humid and the next morning it will be freezing. Let’s face it, as Houstonians, we are all well aware that our summer starts a little earlier and lasts a little longer than summers in other places. And because we get a few extra months of heat we need to make sure our AC system is in top shape to keep us cool all summer long. If you haven’t had an annual AC inspection or tune up, you should know what the symptoms are for real problems with your air condition. Read on to learn about the most common AC problems, what causes them, and what you can do to fix them yourself.
Certain rooms are not cooling
If you notice that a room inside your home is not cooling evenly, the first thing you need to look at is the size of the room. For example, if the main bedroom is not cooling and it has higher ceilings than other rooms in the house and only one air vent, the problem could simply be that the room is too large. The more cubic feet your AC unit has to cool means the harder it has to work and the longer it will take to cool a room. To solve this problem, you could keep your AC system running longer to cool the whole room, or you could install another vent into the room to enable the room to cool faster. Another solution is to install a mini-split system. The expert technicians at JW East specialize in mini-split installation and recommend them to all customers who are experiencing this issue.
Another thing to check in this situation is the duct damper. A damper is a device within the duct system that helps control air flow into particular areas of the home and can also prevent air from entering specific areas. If the room that is not cooling has a damper inside the vent, it could be the reason for the lack of airflow. Another option is to install duct dampers in rooms that are smaller and cool easily, that way, more air will flow into the room that isn’t receiving much air instead of flowing into the rooms that cool without a problem.
Unit blowing warm air
While there could be many reasons for your AC system to be blowing warm air, there are a few things you can check yourself before having to call in the professionals. First, check and make sure your AC settings are correct. It is easy to change the temperature and forget to change the switch from “heat” to “cool.”
If that is not the reason, the next thing to check would be the air filters. Air filters should be changed once every thirty days in order to have optimal conditions for your AC unit. Clogged and dirty filters restrict the air flow and also fill your air with contaminants and bacteria.
It is also important to check that the outdoor unit is operating correctly and to make sure all wires of the unit are in place and haven’t been cut. Accidents do happen with the outdoor component of your AC system. For example, mowing over the wires or the pet dog chewing on them. This can cause the outdoor unit not to turn on and will end up blowing warm air inside the home. In this case, you have figured out the problem and the next step would be to call the professionals to have them come and rewire your outdoor unit.
Refrigerant Leaks
Having refrigerant leaking from anywhere in your system is not a good thing because it causes wear on your system and also makes the unit blow hot air. If you are experiencing this, an important question to ask yourself is, how old is my AC unit?
Overall age is a common cause of refrigerant leakage. The average lifespan on an AC unit is 10-12 years, but more on the 12 year side if the unit has been properly maintained. If it is aged, you will start to notice warmer air and higher utility bills. The unit loses 3% of its efficiency every year it runs.
If your unit is not that old and you think your problem has to do with a refrigerant leak, it could be due to improper installation where parts of the system were not completely sealed together. Or, the leak could be caused because of the vibration of the system. While in use, the system is constantly in motion. The movement itself is capable of causing small leaks in the lines of your system. The best thing to do in this situation would be to call a professional.
Noisy Equipment
While excessively noisy equipment could be caused by many things, there is a very common culprit that should be checked before a professional is called.
You want to look to make sure there is nothing sitting on or near the unit. A lot of people tend to store things in the attic right next to the AC system. The unit has a high-speed blower that comes on and if you have a box or crate that is sitting next to it, things start to rattle and make loud noises. The same thing goes for the unit in the backyard. People store things next to the outdoor unit in the winter and when it comes time to use the unit, they experience noise. Other possibilities could be an off-balanced rotor motor, motor wheel, or fan blade. And for most of us in that situation, the wise thing to do would be to call a professional.
Clogged drain lines
Cleaning the drain lines of your AC unit is something that everyone can do themselves to prevent clogs. Many germs and contaminants grow in drain lines because of the moisture inside, especially algae. It’s important to keep lines clear so that your unit functions properly and everyone inside the home is breathing clean air.
Algae lives in cold, wet, dark places and is constantly growing along with other bacteria in your system’s drain lines. In the winter when the system is off, no water goes through the line and the algae lays dormant. If you pour 1 cup of bleach down the drain lines twice a year it will clean the lines, prevent them from clogging up, and can save you from having to make a service call.
Although most of us are not AC experts, it is good to know there are things we can do ourselves to fix simple air conditioning problems. But when those larger problems do arise, it’s good to know the experts at JW East Mechanical are right around the corner and ready to fix any problem that may come your way.
As Texas residents, we are not strangers to extreme weather. It is not uncommon to wake up with freezing temperatures only to be sweating by the afternoon. And these fluctuating temperatures followed by months of extreme heat aren’t kind to the HVAC system in our home. Your HVAC system works hard to keep your home and office cool and comfortable, but sometimes it can struggle to keep all the rooms cooled evenly. We all have a room in our house that doesn’t seem to keep cool in the summer, or that one room that is always chilly during the winter. This common issue can easily be solved by installing a mini split system.
In the simplest of terms, a mini split system is a ductless, compact air conditioner and heater that has the ability to cool or heat an individual room or rooms. The important thing to remember is that they do not create heat like a furnace, they transport heat between two spaces. They do this by pumping heat from indoors to outdoors (cooling) and from outdoors to indoors (heating).
A mini split system has three main components:
Outdoor unit: The outdoor unit is where the compressor is, and is responsible for compressing the refrigerant (cooling) and expanding the refrigerant (heating).
Indoor unit: The indoor unit is small, and mounted on the wall of each room you are heating or cooling.
Refrigeration lines: Refrigerators connect the indoor units to the outdoor unit
In a regular HVAC system, the large unit is located outside the home. Ducts carry your home’s air to a central location, where it is cooled and then returned to your home via air ducts. But in a mini-split system, the indoor unit is located inside the room or zone that it is cooling. This indoor unit is very small and installed on the ceiling or side wall of the area it is assigned to cool or heat.
The indoor mini-split system has cold evaporator coils inside. The unit takes the warm air that is inside your home or office and runs it over the cold evaporator coils that absorb the heat. It brings the heat to the small, outside unit where refrigerant dumps all the heat it pulled from the inside air. It basically pulls the warm air from inside the home and blows cool air back inside.
Now that you know how they work, we will get into the other benefits of having a mini split system in your home:
They are a lot smaller than the typical HVAC system
Unlike central heating and cooling systems, mini splits do not require ductwork
Mini splits provide both heating and cooling by using a pump, which is more energy efficient
They are rated very high in energy efficiency. In fact, they have a 20+ SEER rating (cooling efficiency) and a 10+ HSPF rating (heating efficiency)
Mini splits are a more affordable option if adding on to a room. Instead of having to add ductwork and expand your current HVAC system, you can install a mini split system and save time and money.
You do not have to waste money cooling or heating rooms that you are not using
If you are interested in learning more about mini splits or are ready to have one installed in your home or office, give the experts at JW East Mechanical a call!
With the cold weather Houston has been experiencing lately, it’s hard to believe that spring is right around the corner. But March 12, we will all be moving our clocks forward. And with that change comes other routine checkups that need to occur within the home. Your home is a system of systems, and we can’t stress how important it is to make sure each and every one of those systems and its equipment is checked regularly, along with other items in the home. Check out our spring checklist to learn exactly what should be done for your home this season to keep things working smoothly throughout the year:
HVAC Check:
The HVAC system should be thought of as one single unit. By treating it as one unit, and keeping up with continual maintenance on all parts of the system both in the spring and winter, you are prolonging the life of your unit. When you complete a checkup on your HVAC system, you knock out the annual maintenance recommendation and have peace of mind when summer rolls around. Nothing is worse than not having cool air in your home in the middle of July in Houston!
A comprehensive AC check should include:
Inspect air filters – Dirty air filters affect the quality of your indoor air. If dirty upon inspection, they need to be cleaned or replaced
Evaluate proper airflow – Make sure that the proper amount of airflow is flowing through the system. Too much or too little will put added strain on your system, causing it to function poorly
Lubricate AC system – This helps all the components function properly and work together
Assess equipment condition – A quick overview of all the equipment to make sure everything looks good and is running correctly
Inspect line set and connections for leaks – A leak, no matter how big, will cause damage to your home, and making sure the lines of your AC unit are leak free will keep it running properly
Evaluate duct seal at unit and secure panels – It is so important to make sure all duct and panels are properly secured. If they are not, your unit will not be able to function as designed and will use up more energy. This will increase your month bills significantly
Inspect ductwork for air leaks and energy loss – A tear in your air duct will mess with the airflow throughout your home. This will cause extra strain on your unit and will create bigger, more expensive problems
Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors play a crucial role in the safety of everyone living inside your home. Oftentimes, your detector will let out a “chirp” sound to warn you that its battery is low, but sometimes this noise doesn’t happen. That is why it’s so important to regularly change their batteries each spring. By adding this to your spring maintenance list, you will never have to worry that your detectors are not working.
Roof & Gutter Check
Your roof is your home’s first line of protection against the weather. And that is why each spring it is important to inspect it for any winter-related damage that may have occurred. The following areas need to be inspected:
Gutters – Check all gutters and clean out any debris. This will ensure proper drainage and make sure they are prepared for hurricane season
Roof – If your area has been hit especially hard by the winter, having a professional inspect the roof is very important. Check for the following:
Loose or misplaced bricks around your chimney
Cracks in your gutters where water seeps through
Dislocated or curved shingles that need to be replaced
Air Filter Replacement
I know we already mentioned air filters, but it is so important we need to talk about them again. Your air filters accumulate all kinds of debris if they aren’t maintained. There are many pollutants in the air that, frankly, have no business inside of our bodies. They can be anything – pet dander, human skin and hair, harsh chemicals, and as if those weren’t bad enough, airborne viruses. Spring is a very active season for these pollutants, and that is why it is so important to make sure you replace all air filters inside your home. Quality air filters will trap these contaminants and ensure that the air quality inside your home is good.
It is always important to be aware of your home’s most important systems and understand how to properly maintain them. The purpose of this list is to give you a head start on what to think about this season for a home that works at its full potential, especially at times of the year when you need it most. Summer is right around the corner! If you check up on all the above points this spring, your home will be in good shape and will run efficiently throughout the summer and fall. And if you do have a problem, you can trust the experts at JW East Mechanical.
The HVAC system should be thought of as one single unit. By treating it as one unit, and keeping up with continual maintenance on all parts of the system both in the spring and winter, you are prolonging the life of your unit. When you complete a checkup on your HVAC system, you knock out the annual maintenance recommendation and have peace of mind when summer rolls around. Nothing is worse than not having cool air in your home in the middle of July in Houston! 
Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors play a crucial role in the safety of everyone living inside your home. Oftentimes, your detector will let out a “chirp” sound to warn you that its battery is low, but sometimes this noise doesn’t happen. That is why it’s so important to regularly change their batteries each spring. By adding this to your spring maintenance list, you will never have to worry that your detectors are not working.