June 28, 2016
Guest post by – Energy Dogg
More people today are tightening their homes at record rates. The energy retrofit industry is expected to keep doubling for the next two decades. As homes tighten up, air quality issues that have always been there become noticeable because building leakage is reduced. Building leakage that flushed your home of pollutants is now gone. Particulates, chemicals, CO, CO2, mold, radon, dust, and humidity all linger in your home where before the increased air-flow diluted them and they were sucked out of the house. These pollutants come from the nastiest parts of your home, basements, attics, crawl spaces, and closets. VOCs from a new carpet, mustiness from the basement and crawl, dust from the attic that were always there now have a hard time getting out of the home.
The whole house is affected because the leaky duct work is pulling all of this into the ductwork then distributing it throughout the house. Your ductwork is the conduit for all this madness. The duct work travels through the basement, crawl, walls, closets, attics, and garages picking up the pollutants and spreading them throughout the living area. Even if you have not done any work to your home to “tighten” it up, the ductwork is distributing whatever is in your home to the living areas. There are multiple ways to fix all these issues but sealing the ductwork is the best place to start. Fact Check: The facts presented here have been fact checked by Pearse and Thomas (both certified energy auditors) and been labeled “Mostly True.” In today’s political climate that is the new “True” and best I can hope for.