Do you want to ensure your home's air quality is at its best? Cleaning your air ducts is an essential part of home health and wellbeing. But can you do it yourself? At On Time Home Services, we recommend that you have your air ducts professionally serviced by an HVAC technician to ensure your system is in the best condition possible. However, between professional maintenance visits, you can take steps to clean them yourself. When it comes to air duct cleaning, it's important to know how often it should be done.
Generally, it's recommended to inspect the air ducts every 2 to 5 years. This is because dust, dander, dirt, hair and insect fragments can accumulate in ventilation grilles and ventilation ducts, which can contaminate the air you breathe. In addition, ducts are sometimes used to draw in air from outside and expel air from inside in the form of exhaust gases. In older homes, metal ducts may be wrapped in asbestos, so these ducts should not be cleaned as this could cause asbestos to spread through the air and enter the house.
All of these factors and more influence indoor air quality (IAQ), which is the quality of the air in or around buildings and, most importantly, in your home. Without knowing it, you could be inhaling second-hand tobacco smoke for weeks after you've put out the cigarette, since the residual smoke that gets trapped in the air ducts stays there for a long time. If the fabric does not adhere to the ventilation grille, it is a supply grille which expels hot or cold air from the air conditioning system depending on whether the boiler or air conditioner is running. These ventilation grilles allow air to enter and exit the attic and are not part of the air conditioning system, so there is no need to clean them. When it comes to cleaning your own air ducts, there are a few things you should keep in mind. First of all, effective professional cleaning will help improve indoor air quality so you can breathe cleaner air.
Another way to start cleaning the air in your home is to change the air filters in your air conditioning system. Cleaning the air return, intake grilles and HVAC filters are important home tips for cleaning the air in your home. With clean air ducts, you help your air conditioning system operate at maximum efficiency, reducing overall wear and tear and utility costs. Keep in mind that even after smoking a cigarette, residual smoke can remain trapped in the air ducts for a long time. Air filters work similarly by trapping impurities. So yes, you can clean your own air ducts - but it's important to do so safely and correctly.
If you're unsure about how to do this yourself or if you have any questions about how often you should clean your own air ducts, contact an HVAC technician for advice.
