Slide 1: The Optimal Ways to Seal Duct Work in your Fayetteville NC Home to Reduce Your Utility Bills Air ducts in a home leak mainly because of the ways in which they're engineered. Because of the short distances of their design, there's definitely potential for numerous leaks in the overall cooling and heating system. Air will be able to leak both in and out of the system, resulting in the HVAC unit to work much harder than it should, throwing away precious money every month in electric bills. If an individual has rooms that are warmer or cooler as opposed to the rest, this is usually a good warning sign that one has leaky duct work. New family homes typically are not necessarily totally free from the problems of incorrectly sealed duct work. Heating and Air Fayetteville NC wishes to offer these details to its present customers and to the home owners of Fayetteville NC. Generally, about Thirty percent of a home's heated or cooled air leaks out from the duct work. Because of this, adequately sealing these leaks helps save a substantial amount of money month-to-month. In addition, with these leaks successfully closed, its going to cut down on dust and dirt that gets into the air, boosting the entire air quality of the home too. It is a simple solution for these leaks, but usually requires some time, for the typical household has roughly 180 feet of duct work. In the big picture, if everybody in the U . S . was to seal their leaking duct work, more than $5 billion in power costs could well be saved every year. It is definitely an excellent method to increase the negative effects of burning fossil fuels to create electric energy and the unwanted effects on our environment. A large amount of duct work is sealed with duct tape, but this is probably the least productive material to work with. Mastic tape is actually a much better approach to use to seal cracks and leaks. Mastic tape is waterproof, flexible and cures as a rubbery stretchy material. It can expand and contract while the duct work expands and contracts with temperature variations. It is fine on metal, fiberglass and flexible duct work. It comes packaged in caulking tubes, tubs and large buckets. It can be put on with a brush, caulking gun, trowel or even by hand (though one will want to wear a glove). One gallon can seal about 20 to 40 joints. The least complicated variety is the water based in terms of clean up, though it does also comes in ail based forms too. In terms of working with mastic, be sure the area is clean of any dust and dirt. One can use a dry rag to dust it off. Make sure there aren't any missing screws and the present ones are screwed in properly and that any sections of duct work not fixed together are sealed. Gaps of up to a quarter inch can be sealed well. Add the mastic not less than one inch all over the region in a thick coat, around 1/16 of an inch thick. If there're gaps larger than one quarter inch, make use of a fiberglass mesh tape to cover the space to start with. The mastic takes between 2 to 4 hours to dry. Afterwards, wrap the duct work with a effective fiberglass insulation. Don't assume that the insulation that one presently has on the duct work will be enough to seal the air loss. If there's soil streaks on the outside of the duct work, there is certainly a duct leak present. Simply take off the insulation and seal the gaps as described above. Heating and Air Fayetteville NC is available to support with any questions you might have using this strategy. Air Conditioning Fayetteville NC