The leaks were causing the boiler to run longer, labor harder and use more energy, but because the maximum amount of heated air was failing to reach the intended destination, there were complications with uneven comfort
My loft in South Bend, IN, is heated and cooled by a forced air system, my buddy and I have a boiler and an a/c that utilize HVAC duct to transfer the conditioned air! While I’ve consistently been actually conscientious about replacing air filters and scheduling seasonal maintenance for the heating and cooling units, I totally neglected the duct system… The supply and return ducts are largely concealed inside walls, behind ceilings and in the crawlspace. I forgot all about them. It wasn’t until I had some complaints with the performance of the boiler last winter, that I realized the importance of the HVAC duct. In South Bend, hot and cold temperatures in the teens or even the drawback digits aren’t unusual. My buddy and I often run the boiler for more than half the year, and the cost of heating is significant. I noticed that my weekly heating bills were quite a bit higher than usual. The boiler seemed to be running non stop and yet the loft felt slightly freezing; Certain rooms were downright cold. There was also significantly more dust and debris circulating in the air. When I called for repairs from a local Heating and Air Conditioning supplier, the serviceman found nothing wrong with the boiler, however he then worked on the performance of the HVAC duct and discovered that nearly thirty percent of the heated air was escaping through holes and cracks at the seams. The leaks were causing the boiler to run longer, labor harder and use more energy, but because the maximum amount of heated air was failing to reach the intended destination, there were complications with uneven comfort. Plus, those flaws in the HVAC duct were pulling in contaminants such as dust and fumes that were then getting spread throughout the home.