How Does Duct Design Affect Heating and Cooling?

If you're asked which of your home's HVAC components are most important, you'd probably say your furnace, air conditioner, or heat pump. Another component that you shouldn't overlook is the duct system that distributes your conditioned air, because it directly affects your heating and cooling equipment's performance.

If the duct design is flawed, the ductwork is poorly installed, or it's damaged or leaky, you can experience problems with:

Temperature control.

Damaged or leaky ductwork that lets conditioned air escape can make it difficult or impossible to maintain your desired comfort level.

Air quality.

Pressure imbalances due to duct design flaws can pull in contaminants and allergens from unconditioned areas and erode your indoor air quality.

Energy consumption.

Overcoming duct deficiencies increases the workload of your HVAC equipment, so it uses more energy.

Component longevity.

That extra workload can also shorten your costly HVAC equipment's lifespan.

Fundamentals of Effective Ductwork Design

A properly-designed duct system should deliver the correct volume of air, at your desired temperature, to the various rooms in your home. Also, it should return stale air back to the HVAC equipment for reconditioning. An effective duct design is based on principles of air distribution and thermal gains and losses, and requires quality materials, construction and installation. Such a system also relies on:

Proper duct sizing.

Individual ducts must be sized to match the capacity of the HVAC equipment. Undersized ducts can't carry a sufficient volume of air, and oversized ducts will reduce the system's efficiency.

Balanced airflow.

To avoid creating positive or negative pressure within the house and HVAC system, the duct system must have the right number of supply and return ducts to deliver an equal volume of air.

Duct location.

Whenever possible, ducts should be placed inside the home's conditioned envelope. If ducts must be routed through unconditioned areas like a garage or attic, they need to be properly sealed and insulated to limit energy losses.

If you have concerns that flaws in your HVAC duct design are affecting heating and cooling in your Broken Arrow home, contact us today at Air Assurance for expert help.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Best Ductwork Designs For The Home

The best ductwork design and professional installation keeps utility bills under control, provides optimal home comfort for occupants, fosters peak performance of a multitude of systems and helps enhance indoor air quality. That’s a tall order to meet, and requires early planning in conjunction with new home construction or remodeling, and clear communication with your HVAC professional.Ductwork design: trunk and branch Trunk and branch is a common design that is adaptable to most house layouts. The trunk-and-branch system uses a large primary supply trunk connected directly to the air handler’s supply plenum. Smaller run-outs and branch ducts connect to the trunk. With a trunk-and-branch system, air streams are easily balanced, which is a boon for comfortable heating and cooling.Another very important component of this style is that trunk and branches are easily installed within the conditioned spaces of a home, which, in the event of air leaks, is important for controlling heating and cooling bills, and better indoor air quality. The downside to the trunk-and-branch system is that there are more places where air leaks may develop, so quality duct sealing is imperative.Ductwork design: radial systemWhen you think of a radial ductwork system, you may picture spokes extending out from the hub of a wheel, and you would be exactly right. A radial ductwork system does not use a main supply trunk. Instead, each branch, or run-out, extends directly from a small supply plenum at the air handler, and extends outward to the air-supply outlets. This ductwork design maximizes airflow by using generally shorter duct runs.While the radial system is typically used for single-level homes, it may be modified to accommodate a number of home designs by using parallel duct runs, as opposed to the radial pattern. The radial system, or modified radial, like the trunk and branch, is conducive to installation in conditioned spaces, such as a hang ceiling.For more details and information about ductwork design and installation, contact Air Assurance Heating, Air Conditioning, Geothermal today. We proudly serve homeowners in Broken Arrow, and throughout the greater Tulsa area.Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Image courtesy of Shutterstock