Duct testing has become an essential part of home construction, as well as duct leakage on existing homes. Duct leakage is nothing more than a common thief. It takes advantage of us when we are not looking. "Duct leakage happens when the air you have paid money to heat and cool leaks out of the seams of your duct work, thereby sending your conditioned air, and your hard-earned money to the outside. The average home loses about 20% to 30% of the warm or cool air to the outside. Duct leakage robs us blind. The average Kilo-Watt Hour in the country ranges from .20 to .45 cents in California to .09 to .18 cents in the Midwest. The average home uses 975 KWH per month.
If you lost only 10% of the conditioned air from duct leakage, it would equate to approximately 2 round trips from New York to California and back.
In simple Terms
- The EPA and DOE state that the average home duct leakage is 30%
- You lost 216,000 CFM today
- You lost 78,840,000 CFM this year
- Summation: you gave away about 2 round trips from New York to California and you didn't even see it coming or should we say GOING!
Next Steps
Now that you have the picture you must be asking what can I do? If you are a builder or homeowner call Duct-EZ. If you are a DIY homeowner you can go to your local home improvement store and purchase HVAC UL181mastic, take the weekend and smear it on. Make sure you get all the seams, elbows and joints. If you have your HVAC Technician seal your duct work, make sure he only uses mastic. HVAC tape does not seal as well and does not last over the long haul.
Another avenue is to call Duct-EZ for a quote for spray applied mastic sealer. Duct-EZ fills all the nooks, crannies and hard to reach spots on the duct work. Duct-EZ can also seal those return air ducts behind the drywall without causing dusty drywall repairs. Duct-EZ can be applied directly into the duct work without the sticky residue used in other products.