Decatur Home Energy Makeover – Day 1

As we began our work yesterday on the City of Decatur Home Energy Makeover project, it became very obvious why our homeowner is paying so much to heat and cool her home. If you recall, she has approximately 70% duct leakage.

Duct leakage is one of the most under-emphasized components when looking at the energy usage in a house. This is especially the case when your house is heating and cooling relatively well. But the truth is that you could be sending stacks of dollar bills to your utility provider every month that you don’t need to.

When I arrived at the jobsite, I found our installation crew working on the new ductwork and Mike was busy cleaning Dana’s air conditioning coil. Now, coil cleanliness is not part of duct leakage, but it is also an area that increases your monthly bills and puts a strain on your AC unit, causing potential service issues and possibly premature failure. Dana’s coil was full of dirt and pet hair. We decided that this coil was far beyond our ability to clean and Lennox came to the rescue and provided a new coil for her.

This could have been prevented with routine maintenance. A coil should be checked and cleaned if necessary at least once a year. A good filter that is changed regularly will prevent this from happening. If you have a high efficiency media filter like an Aprilaire or a Honeywell medial filter, your coil will stay “like new” clean for many years. Please don’t neglect this very important home maintenance.

As I walked into the house and began to see the existing system, I noticed that the old furnace didn’t have a return air plenum. It had been set on the floor and 2 holes cut into the floor for return. No sealing and a completely improper way to install a duct system. Dana’s new system will have a return plenum and be mastic sealed at all joints.

Next, a quick look at her supply ductwork revealed the same issues. The ductwork was never properly sealed, not properly insulated and was falling apart. This was costing her hundreds of dollars each year. Her new duct system will be sealed at every joint and insulated properly from one end to the other.

If you think that you may have a leaky duct system, it’s fairly easy to find out. A visual test can reveal many problems, like we found for our Decatur homeowner. We can also do a duct blaster test where we can tell exactly how much air is leaking in your system. More on this at another time. As always, please don’t hesitate to call to discuss your particular system.

Next time, I will show you the finished product!