15 Years of Discomfort Fixed In One Afternoon
Winters can get pretty cold in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, and they just seem to be getting colder. With average temperatures hovering around 21 degrees, February 2015 went down in the record books as one of the coldest that this northern Pittsburgh suburb has experienced in the last 140 years.
For Erik B., it was one too many cold winter nights that got him researching for the latest information on home performance and eventually solving a problem that plagued his family for years.
Erik and his wife first moved into their 60-year-old 2-story brick home back in 2001. It took just one muggy-hot Pittsburgh summer to discover that something with their house wasn’t working quite right. No matter what he did with the thermostat, there were certain rooms in the house that never got enough air conditioned air to be comfortable. When winter arrived, the furnace would kick in, but those same rooms were never warm enough to make them particularly livable.
Now, with a new child in the family, Erik was particularly determined not to spend another Pittsburgh winter in a home where several rooms were off limits. He began Googling topics related to home comfort and performance, sifting through stories from other homeowners faced with similar problems. He tried a host of fixes, all of which came up short in resolving the problem.
Then several months ago, after a wall insulation project had little effect on his home’s comfort issues, Erik came across information about an innovative new approach to duct sealing that worked from inside the ducts to find and seal leaks. He had already tried sealing those portions of the ductwork that were easily accessible, but the article pointed out that the majority of ductwork (and the leaks they often contain) is hidden behind walls, under insulation or in tight spots that are simply impossible to reach for manual sealing. By sealing from the inside instead, this new aeroseal duct sealing technology was designed to easily reach and seal all the leaks throughout the entire duct system.
With one more Google search, Erik located Aeroseal of Pittsburgh, a neighborhood HVAC shop that specializes in duct cleaning and aerosealing. A few days later, Andy Haak, owner of Aeroseal of Pittsburgh, was at the house inspecting the HVAC system and testing the ductwork. When completed, Andy was able to show Erik that while the ENERGY STAR-rated furnace and air conditioner were working properly, the system was losing nearly 390 CFM (cubic-feet-per-minute) of treated air through leaks in the duct system. According to computer calculations, if all the little leaks were added together, they would represent a 54-square-inch hole.
“Years in the business has taught me that duct leakage like this is very common for Pittsburgh-area homes,” said Haak. “I believe most homeowners in the area are losing 20% to 30% of the air they heat and cool each year, through duct leaks, and this is usually the cause of uneven temperatures throughout the home.”
After showing Erick the results, the homeowner set an appointment to have his ducts cleaned and aerosealed. On the scheduled day, the Aeroseal team arrived in the morning, laid down drop clothes in the intended work area, and began by cleaning the duct system.
By early afternoon, they had cleaned and prepared the ductwork for sealing. The two-man crew had temporarily blocked all the registers in the home with foam plugs so no air could escape through the vents. The computerized aeroseal delivery system was then connected to the home’s ductwork via a long flexible plastic tube. Now, when the equipment was turned on, a fan would blow a mist of sealant into the interior of the duct.
Rather then coat the inside walls of the ductwork, the dry particles of sealant remain suspended in air until they come across a leak. Here they cling to the edge of the leak and then to other particles of sealant, forming a bond that covers the entire hole.
It took about one hour to seal the home’s entire duct system. At the end of the process, a computer-generated report showed leakage was reduced by more than 90%. More significantly, Erik immediately felt the difference.
“The change was night and day. As soon as aerosealing was completed and the plugs were removed, I turned on the furnace and felt strong air coming from all the vents – even in the problem rooms where little to no air ever reached before,” said Erik.
As a bonus, it was calculated that by sealing the ducts, Erik’s family would now be saving $300 – $500 a year on their utility bill.
Now, when Erik hears in the news that 2016 is on board to be another brutal winter, he smiles with confidence.
“This time around we plan to use all the rooms in the house come winter, spring and summer,” said Erik. “More comfort. Less cost. Aerosealing proved to be one of the best investments I could make.”