Best Ways To Prevent Air Duct Contamination In Your Home

Air ducts should be free of molds, pollen grains, bacteria, decaying matter, dust mites and residues from chemicals or household products. Although just a few people ensure that this happens, air duct contamination has been linked to a wide range of suffering in people. The most threatening risks air duct contamination causes include aggressive pollen grain allergies in some people, cough and spread of air borne diseases, among other things. The risks posed by contaminated air ducts vary with each unique situation.

This article will educate you about good preventative air duct maintenance tips that will minimize contamination.

Use efficient air filters
Every home should use an efficient air filter to ensure that its air ducts are not contaminated.  Good air filters take as much stale air out of your rooms for greater flow and freshness. In addition to removing stale air that assures freshness, air filters can help to remove the small particles that are in the air near them. This means that being near them will lessen the amount of contamination in your room, ensuring that you are safer, and healthy from contaminants. It’s however, important to note that, air filters are not efficient against microscopic house dust mite feces and thus not the most effective purifiers.

Maintain your heating and cooling system
Your home’s cooling and heating system is a very important in your air duct maintenance. How you maintain them affects how your air ducts work. Cooling and heating system maintenance should be thorough for a clean, uncontaminated home. Some of the pointers you must have at the back of your mind include ensuring that the cooling coils and the drain pans are properly cleaned as well. This will not only prevent the accumulation of dust or leakages, but in the end, you’ll end up with healthier and safer air ducts.

Prevent your air ducts from becoming wet
Moisture of whatever kind should not be allowed into your homes’ air ducts. Research has shown that keeping moisture out of your air ducts is the most effective way of preventing the biological proliferation of molds and other contaminants. Normally, air ducts will be affected by moisture coming from leaks in the duct system. Moisture can also affect your air duct system when it’s poorly installed or serviced.

An easier way to contain the contamination is to prevent the condensation process which occurs because of a difference of temperature between air surrounding the air ducts, and the ducts’ surface. You can achieve this air duct maintenance feat by ensuring that all leaks are properly repaired. Also ensure that the condensation pan on your cooling coils drains accordingly as well as making sure than all non-air conditioned spaces are properly sealed.

Properly install your air ducts
One of the biggest challenges most people face with air ducts in their homes is poor installation and servicing.  To avoid these challenges, when times calls for a total replacement of your air conditioning system, ensure that it’s the right size according to manufacturer specifications. Avoid the temptation to install an air conditioning system that is either too short of the demands, or too much for your room. An overly huge air conditioning system will yield a lot of infrequently cycling which will yield poor moisture removal from your house. A smaller one on the other hand, will result in very little moisture removal- leading to contamination.

The ideal way to win with air conditioning for air duct maintenance is to ensure that the air conditioner is the right size. All the ducts should also be sealed firmly at joints.

What you can take away
Air duct contaminants include molds, pollen grains, bacteria, decaying matter, dust mites and residues from chemicals and other household products. These can be contaminants can be removed if you observe best practices in air conditioning, heating and cooling system maintenance. To prevent air duct contamination, you should therefore have effective air filters, working cooling and heating systems, moisture management and properly install your aid ducts.

By diligently ensuring that your air filters work accordingly, and that your air flow and moisture content are contained effectively, you’ll be in a better position to maintain your air duct functions.