Properly Designed And Installed Ductwork: Why It's So Important

If you’re undertaking new construction, retrofitting your attic or basement, or upgrading your current ducts, it’s vital that you design and install ductwork properly if you want to minimize your energy consumption and losses. Additionally, ensuring properly designed and installed ductwork ensures that you and your loved ones experience greater home comfort for many years.

Ensuring efficiency by correctly sizing your ductwork

The first step that you should take when you’re designing an efficient duct system is to ensure that you correctly size it. How do you do that? Here are several factors to consider:

• The size of your heating and cooling system.
• The distance from your HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) to your home’s furthest air-supply register.
• A heat gain and loss measurement.
• The thermal dynamics and layout of your home. This includes square footage, orientation to the sun, windows and their size, and other factors that contribute to airflow distribution. Ducts should take the shortest path from the air handler to registers, and avoid unconditioned areas when possible. Additionally, you should insulate ducts in unconditioned areas to avoid energy loss.

Ensuring optimal airflow to guarantee your comfort

Balanced air distribution provides comfort for you and your loved ones, and optimal conditions for HVAC function, and prevents energy and air quality issues, such as air infiltration of outside air or from an attached garage. For optimal airflow, ensure that your home’s registers are not obstructed, and locate return grilles centrally on each floor of your home’s living space. Additionally, if you have rooms or areas that you typically keep closed off, you can use jumper ducts and transfer grilles.

Ensuring efficiency with a durable design

Ducts undergo substantial stress over time, due mostly to expansion and contraction from temperature changes. Ensure that you seal duct connections with collars, mastic and mesh. Anything less likely will cost you more, because you’ll probably have to pay for ductwork repairs and you’ll waste energy. Your designed and installed ductwork should extend as straight as possible, utilizing sloping turns when necessary to optimize airflow.

Your home’s ductwork is a valuable investment that has consequences not only for your comfort and energy expenses, but for the efficiency of all of your home-comfort systems. Contact Paschal Heat, Air, Geothermal & Generators for more information about properly designed and installed ductwork, and all HVAC matters and questions that you may have. For 40 years and counting, we’ve provided residents in Northwest Arkansas with top-quality service and guarantees.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about designed and installed ductwork and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Paschal Heating, Air & Geothermal services Northwest Arkansas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!