• Business and Finance
• Family
• Computers and Internet
• Auto and Trucks
• Education
• Health
• Hobbies
• Home Improvement
• Legal
• Marketing

• Home
• Arthur's Articles Home
• Browse Categories
• Browse Authors
• Submit an Article
• Search for Articles

Home » Home Improvement Articles » Tips And Tricks About Cleaning Air Ducts Vents

Tips and Tricks About Cleaning Air Ducts & Vents

Is the air in your home clean? All of us breathe air when we are inside the home and most people are unsure about how clean the air inside their home is. Just like the air outside your home has several contaminants and pollutants, the air inside your home also have several contaminants. So if you breathe this air full of contaminants, the health risks increase multifold. You will be prone to various respiratory diseases, which can further get aggravated and take the form of allergy, asthma, persistent cough, nausea, headaches, and even fatigue. The root cause of these illnesses is the contaminants who have found their way into your home because your air duct or HVAC system is dirty.

Reduce health risks by cleaning Ducts

Contaminants in the air duct or your ventilation system are in different forms like fungi, Mold, allergens and bacteria. Allergens like pollen, dust, and pet dander are quite common and can get inside the HVAC system in your home, which will circulate it right into the air that you breathe. Such a scenario will pose higher health risks and create negative health consequences on a long-term basis. According to the American College of Allergy almost 50% of illnesses are caused by pollutants that exist in the air inside your home due to improper vent cleaning.

As a result, it is important to clean your HVAC system on a regular basis. It is not only the health perspective in question here but a clean air duct system will provide higher performance as compared to a dirty system. Efficient running of your air duct or HVAC system will help in reducing your energy bills. Cleaner air duct systems will have a longer lifespan and will have less technical problems. So there are many more advantages of having a clean HVAC system other than the fact that it will keep the air in your home cleaner.

Factors That Affect Cleaning

Vent cleaning is a must and needs to be done on a regular basis. The industry standards recommend that you should have an expert inspect your air ducts and vents once every two years, and also initiate vent cleaning once every 5-7 years. Of course there is no harm in initiating a vent cleaning process once every 3-4 years also but all this depends on the conditions within your home.

On the other hand the NADCA or National Air Duct Cleaners Association does not recommend any specific time frame for air duct cleaning. According to them air duct cleaning should be initiated by a homeowner when they feel it is necessary and have outlined certain factors that will lead to frequent vent cleaning. According to them, vent cleaning becomes necessary within a short period of time if:

1. Smoking is done in the house
2. There are pets in the house that shed hair and dander
3. There is damage or water contamination in the home or to the HVAC system
4. NADCA also recommends air duct cleaning prior to occupancy of a new home.

Cleaning Methods

The most effective way of air duct cleaning is by using source removal methods. A powerful vacuum cleaner is used as a part of this method and it can suck air with dirt from your air duct and ventilation system. There are certain devices, which are inserted into the air ducts like brushes, skipper balls and air whips to dislodge any dirt or debris that is stuck to the inner surface of the ventilation system.

You can choose a duct cleaning contractor who is an expert in vent cleaning and will be able to clean your piping, registers, ductwork, and blower motor. These professional vent cleaning experts also use vacuums mounted on trucks, which can clean according to NADCA standards. The vacuums mounted on trucks are very powerful cleaners.

You need to be careful while hiring air duct cleaning contractor. You can start with several contractors who will inspect your air duct and ventilation system and then offer you their best quote. You need to make sure that the air duct cleaning contractor visually inspects the air ducts and the various components of your HVAC system before offering you a cleaning solution.

If you hire NADCA contractors then you will be rest assured that your vent cleaning process will be based on NADCA guidelines. Check the license of the vent cleaning company and ask for at least 3 references. Last but not the least; don't hire someone who offers you the lowest price because that will translate into inadequate cleaning.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Save Time When You Write

I'm in the process of moving from one computer to another, and one of the things I really miss so far is a good keystroke macro program.

That's a program, a communication technology, that allows you to trigger long strings of text, including names and email addresses, with just a couple of keystrokes.

For example, I often have to write out the name of my book, A Manager's Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results. With a macro, I simply type "mgx" (without the quotation marks) to write out the first half of the title (up to the colon), or "mgc" to write out the full title.

If you've used them yourself, you know how handy it is to be able to have shortcuts to commonly-used pieces of text (also called boilerplate).

Almost every kind of writing uses commonly-repeated words and names, and once you get used to using macros, they save a lot of time that would otherwise be spent hammering on the keyboard.

They're especially useful for snippets of text that involve hard- to-reach characters on the keyboard. For example, when you type an email address, you have to reach to the upper left corner of the screen to hit the "@" key. So, I have macros for commonly used email addresses: "abcx" for "abbottr@managersguide.com" and "ralx" for "robert@abbottletter.com"

As the latter macro suggests, it helps to have a shortcut that resembles the text that will be written out. You can also use keyboard function keys or combinations of keystrokes as your shortcuts, whatever works best for you.

It's also helpful, if you don't already have shortcuts or macros, to start with a few and add them slowly. That way you don't have to think about them; each becomes well established in your memory. In my experience, if you have to stop and look for the shortcut, you've probably lost much of the advantage that's gained by using them.

In the same vein, consider boilerplate email messages. I use the Eudora email program, which calls them 'stationery' and makes their use relatively easy. In this case, you're not just shortcutting a word or phrase -- you're shortcutting an entire email message. Some other email programs allow you to do the same sort of thing.

To create a piece of stationery, simply open a new email message form and put in your return address, the subject line, and the text of the message. Then save it as a stationery file in an appropriate folder. When you need to send that message again, simply get a copy from the folder, insert the address of the person you want to contact, and click the Send button.

You could, of course, do essentially the same thing with a macro program, but it's faster and easier if your email program lets you create these boilerplate messages.

I use stationery messages for routine thank-yous, for follow-ups on various projects, and for responding to certain types of inquiries. You wouldn't use them for important messages or messages requiring a personalized response.

However you do it, the important thing is to use boilerplate tools when you can. They're one of the easiest and most effective tools for time-efficient writing.