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.

Why Your A/C's SEER Isn't Being Reached

Why Your A/C's SEER Isn't Being Reached

The SEER rating on an air conditioning system stands for seasonal energy efficiency ratio. SEER measures how many units of energy are expended by the air conditioner to generate one unit of cooling. Modern units are required to have a rating of at least 13 and some are much higher. You can achieve a lot of savings on your utility bill when you replace your old inefficient unit. However, poor conditions can lower an A/C's SEER so much that you won’t even see an improvement.

First, your house should be well insulated to keep hot air out and cool air in. Leaky ducts are another factor that can mean poor energy efficiency. Have your technician check ductwork to make sure it's the right size, tight and leak-free. Leaks can be sealed by a trained professional.

Make sure you choose the right size unit for your home. An oversized unit won’t deliver more cool air, but will run in shorter, inefficient cycles that never achieve the right level of cooling and dehumidification -- especially in places like Broken Arrow, where summers are hot. Your HVAC technician should use Manuals J and S to find the unit that is just the right size and is compatible with your ductwork.

Inefficient airflow can increase energy costs by up to 10 percent, so it’s important to take care of any issues during installation. Airflow can be obstructed by damaged ducts or grilles or obstructions like debris in the ducts. An improperly sized air handler is another cause of improper airflow. Your technician should measure the air handler to make sure it's the right size for your A/C unit.

Refrigerant charge is another important component on the installation checklist. Most systems are either undercharged or overcharged. Your technician will do a careful measurement of the line set to get the right charge.

If your A/C's SEER isn't being reached, call Air Assurance. With more than 20 years experience and the largest fleet team in the area, we can find and eliminate the factors that lower your A/C's SEER.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