How to have a healthy home

January 28, 2010  |  Tips & Troubleshooting, air duct cleaning, heating and air  |  attic space, crawl spaces, dust mites, indoor air pollution, indoor air quality, indoor pollution, mold mildew, pet dander, quality heating, tiny particles

Reduction of tiny particles such as these can help prevent many illnesses, general lethargy, sneezing, sore throats, headaches and other symptoms triggered by pollution.

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How to Prevent Contamination of Heat and Air Ducts

January 21, 2010  |  air duct cleaning  |  air ducts, contamination, drain pans, dust in the air, heating and cooling

Whether or not you decide to have the air ducts in your business cleaned, committing to a good preventive maintenance program is essential to minimize duct contamination. To prevent dirt from entering the system:

  • Use the highest efficiency air filter recommended by the manufacturer of your heating and cooling system.
  • Change filters regularly.
  • If your filters become clogged, change them more frequently.
  • Be sure you do not have any missing filters and that air cannot bypass filters through gaps around the filter holder.
  • When having your heating and cooling system maintained or checked for other reasons, be sure to ask the service provider to clean cooling coils and drain pans.
  • During construction or renovation work that produces dust in your home, seal off supply and return registers and do not operate the heating and cooling system until after cleaning up the dust.
  • Remove dust and vacuum your home regularly. (Use a high efficiency vacuum (HEPA) cleaner or the highest efficiency filter bags your vacuum cleaner can take. Vacuuming can increase the amount of dust in the air during and after vacuuming as well as in your ducts).
  • If your heating system includes in-duct humidification equipment, be sure to operate and maintain the humidifier strictly as recommended by the manufacturer.
  • Commit to a preventive maintenance program of yearly inspections of your heating and cooling system, regular filter changes, and steps to prevent moisture contamination.

When should you have air ducts cleaned

January 21, 2010  |  air duct cleaning  |  air ducts, cooling system, heating and air, heating and cooling, heating and cooling systems, metal ducts, mold detection, mold growth, particles

You should consider having the air ducts in your business or home cleaned if:

  • There is substantial visible mold growth inside hard surface (e.g., sheet metal) ducts or on other components of your heating and cooling system.
  • There are several important points to understand concerning mold detection in heating and cooling systems:
    • Many sections of your heating and cooling system may not be accessible for a visible inspection, so call All Quality Heating and Air to test if mold exists.
    • You should be aware that although a substance may look like mold, a positive determination of whether it is mold or not can be made only by an expert and may require laboratory analysis for final confirmation.
    • If you have insulated air ducts and the insulation gets wet or moldy it cannot be effectively cleaned and should be removed and replaced.
  • If the conditions causing the mold growth in the first place are not corrected, mold growth will recur.
  • Ducts are clogged with excessive amounts of dust and debris and/or particles are actually released into the home from your supply registers.

If any of the conditions identified above exists, it usually suggests one or more underlying causes. Prior to any cleaning, retrofitting, or replacing of your ducts, the cause must be corrected or else the problem will likely recur.