Great work, I taped up the return and the supply ducts in my basement that I could reach with metal tape recently. You made a good point that the filter needs to be done as well. I'il get to that next.
Thanks Chuck, this sort of item definitely fits into the "out of sight, out of mind" area for most homeowners, despite the fact that they often see their duct system every day. But for a few hours and $20-30 people can often make a solid impact on their home, as well as improve the quality of the air they are breathing inside of it. Andy
Hi Andy, I really appreciate the guidance some weeks ago. It has yielded very significant results for my home, and considering where I’m located, I am grateful. One of my supply ducts wasn’t even attached and other flex ducts were poorly secured. The amount of leakage was enormous. Being a novice it did take some time, but Im now confident in the air quality and energy efficiency as a result. My unit no longer runs for >1 hr just to go down 1 or 2 degrees. Afterwards I went visit the gf at work who promptly hooked me up to an IV. Good as new, for myself and my AC. Next up is the foam board. Thx again and all the best to you and your crew.
Thanks Jonathan! Glad I could be of help. Yes leaky ducts, both supply and return, are often enormous energy wasters in homes and also tend to contribute to poor interior air quality. We find disconnected supply ducts all the time when we do our AeroSeal duct sealing jobs. It's incredible. And the degree of improvement that you can make for a few hours of time and likely less than $100 in materials is often surprising. Nicely done! Andy
Appreciate your videos. Thank you. I have noticed a 5 degree improvement in my house since the air sealing in my attic. I have been 13 years without insulation in my attic and AC would fall behind by 10 degrees . Still no insulation , but air sealing is almost done. I like your smoker , think Ill get one before I blow in the insulation.
You're welcome and thanks for the comment! I was air sealing an attic on a 90 degree day last week could actually feel cold air blowing up from some of the wire penetrations and top plate air leaks (not exactly what you would expect, but it happens). The homeowner saw an instant cooling improvement from the air sealing just like you did. Nice work! Andy
After inspecting my air ducts, I'm absolutely blown away by how huge the gaps are in my air return ducts. I have my return duct between two floor joists. These gaps are so large that I can fit two fingers in them. No wonder my electric bill has been sky high for a decade. I can't believe I went all this time with my ducts this way. I'm going to seal them all up. Hopefully it'll make a difference. I assume it will.
Hey there, yes the return ducts are usually not given any respect at all during the initial construction process and as a result they are often catastrophically leaky. The more that you can seal them, the more that return air will be taken from the upper living spaces of your home rather than the basement and garage. This will improve your interior air quality, comfort, and energy efficiency as the warmer air in those spaces is more efficiently pulled back to your HVAC system to be re-cooled. Andy
Note, for the crappy filter holders shown at the end of the video they make some magnetized covers that work pretty well. I do need to use a little tape but its a lot less tape and less messy.
Excellent point, you are 100% correct. Crappy filter slots for the cold air returns are definitely an issue. We recommend putting a piece of cheapo duct tape over them and dating the tape with a sharpie. Then replacing the tape with new tape when the filter is changed out. You want that air pulling from the home, not the basement! Andy
Yes, AeroSeal really does a nice job for our homeowners, you are absolutely right. And good catch on the red and blue collars at the top of the water heater. We informed the homeowner that he had a problem here with back drafting and needed get that rectified. The idea of the cold air returns sucking in the back drafting exhaust was doubly bad. And the leaky cold air returns could even have been causing the flue to backdraft in the first place. Andy
Why would any electrician leave a one inch drilled into the sheet metal hole on the cold air return duct located right next to the furnace which it serves? When I was changing the air filter on my furnace today I was astonished to see that the switch for my furnace fan had been moved leaving only a hole where it used to be attatched onto that cold air return duct on my furnace. I saw this the day after noticing that someone left their big feet made tracks in the snow up to my front door and left them around my house in my back yard too. Now I will be changing all of the locks on the entrance doors to my house right away after that.
Great question, but the unfortunate answer is that VERY FEW people understand how these systems work. It is astonishing how often we find large holes in return ducts that are in close proximity to naturally drafting water heaters. The frequency with which leaky return ducts cause water heaters to back draft in homes is VERY high.
Thanks for your video, I just renovated my basement in summer installed new AC but after that when we turned on the heat I got noise from dripping water from the duct, I opened one new return and two new registers and a couple of new windows installed but all good insulation, please guide where we made a mistake, thanks in advance
You are correct, you can rarely get to all of the leaks -- unless you are able to seal them with a process like AeroSeal (but in Pittsburgh the leaks in returns are typically too big for AeroSeal to work). However, the more leaks in the return that are sealed 1) the more efficiently the house will heat and cool 2) the less likelihood that you will cause back drafting in a furnace or water heater 3) the better your home's interior air quality will be. Andy
The gaps in cold air returns are often extensive. And you definitely do not want to be pulling air back to your furnace from garages, crawl spaces, attics, or unfinished basements.
Those aren't holes, they are black plastic plugs that were inserted into the holes by a duct cleaning team. They seal pretty tight and did show any effect of leakage.
Great work, I taped up the return and the supply ducts in my basement that I could reach with metal tape recently. You made a good point that the filter needs to be done as well. I'il get to that next.
Thanks Chuck, this sort of item definitely fits into the "out of sight, out of mind" area for most homeowners, despite the fact that they often see their duct system every day. But for a few hours and $20-30 people can often make a solid impact on their home, as well as improve the quality of the air they are breathing inside of it.
Andy
Hi Andy, I really appreciate the guidance some weeks ago. It has yielded very significant results for my home, and considering where I’m located, I am grateful. One of my supply ducts wasn’t even attached and other flex ducts were poorly secured. The amount of leakage was enormous. Being a novice it did take some time, but Im now confident in the air quality and energy efficiency as a result. My unit no longer runs for >1 hr just to go down 1 or 2 degrees. Afterwards I went visit the gf at work who promptly hooked me up to an IV. Good as new, for myself and my AC. Next up is the foam board. Thx again and all the best to you and your crew.
Thanks Jonathan! Glad I could be of help. Yes leaky ducts, both supply and return, are often enormous energy wasters in homes and also tend to contribute to poor interior air quality. We find disconnected supply ducts all the time when we do our AeroSeal duct sealing jobs. It's incredible. And the degree of improvement that you can make for a few hours of time and likely less than $100 in materials is often surprising. Nicely done!
Andy
Appreciate your videos. Thank you. I have noticed a 5 degree improvement in my house since the air sealing in my attic. I have been 13 years without insulation in my attic and AC would fall behind by 10 degrees . Still no insulation , but air sealing is almost done. I like your smoker , think Ill get one before I blow in the insulation.
You're welcome and thanks for the comment! I was air sealing an attic on a 90 degree day last week could actually feel cold air blowing up from some of the wire penetrations and top plate air leaks (not exactly what you would expect, but it happens). The homeowner saw an instant cooling improvement from the air sealing just like you did. Nice work!
Andy
After inspecting my air ducts, I'm absolutely blown away by how huge the gaps are in my air return ducts. I have my return duct between two floor joists. These gaps are so large that I can fit two fingers in them. No wonder my electric bill has been sky high for a decade. I can't believe I went all this time with my ducts this way. I'm going to seal them all up. Hopefully it'll make a difference. I assume it will.
Hey there, yes the return ducts are usually not given any respect at all during the initial construction process and as a result they are often catastrophically leaky. The more that you can seal them, the more that return air will be taken from the upper living spaces of your home rather than the basement and garage. This will improve your interior air quality, comfort, and energy efficiency as the warmer air in those spaces is more efficiently pulled back to your HVAC system to be re-cooled.
Andy
Note, for the crappy filter holders shown at the end of the video they make some magnetized covers that work pretty well. I do need to use a little tape but its a lot less tape and less messy.
Excellent point, you are 100% correct. Crappy filter slots for the cold air returns are definitely an issue. We recommend putting a piece of cheapo duct tape over them and dating the tape with a sharpie. Then replacing the tape with new tape when the filter is changed out. You want that air pulling from the home, not the basement!
Andy
Aeroseal for the win!! The red and blue collars at the top of the water heater are melted - an obvious sign of backdraft.
Yes, AeroSeal really does a nice job for our homeowners, you are absolutely right. And good catch on the red and blue collars at the top of the water heater. We informed the homeowner that he had a problem here with back drafting and needed get that rectified. The idea of the cold air returns sucking in the back drafting exhaust was doubly bad. And the leaky cold air returns could even have been causing the flue to backdraft in the first place.
Andy
Why would any electrician leave a one inch drilled into the sheet metal hole on the cold air return duct located right next to the furnace which it serves? When I was changing the air filter on my furnace today I was astonished to see that the switch for my furnace fan had been moved leaving only a hole where it used to be attatched onto that cold air return duct on my furnace. I saw this the day after noticing that someone left their big feet made tracks in the snow up to my front door and left them around my house in my back yard too. Now I will be changing all of the locks on the entrance doors to my house right away after that.
Great question, but the unfortunate answer is that VERY FEW people understand how these systems work. It is astonishing how often we find large holes in return ducts that are in close proximity to naturally drafting water heaters. The frequency with which leaky return ducts cause water heaters to back draft in homes is VERY high.
Great video.
Thank you, glad that you liked it!
Andy
Thanks for your video, I just renovated my basement in summer installed new AC but after that when we turned on the heat I got noise from dripping water from the duct, I opened one new return and two new registers and a couple of new windows installed but all good insulation, please guide where we made a mistake, thanks in advance
Hmmm..a dripping water sound or actual dripping water?
Where can I purchase a hand held smoke tool. Did a google search not having much luck. Found one , but it was 1K.
These are what we use. They work quite well and are around $100.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MFNBV8D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
But you can't get to the tops or back sides of all these leaky ducts.
You are correct, you can rarely get to all of the leaks -- unless you are able to seal them with a process like AeroSeal (but in Pittsburgh the leaks in returns are typically too big for AeroSeal to work). However, the more leaks in the return that are sealed 1) the more efficiently the house will heat and cool 2) the less likelihood that you will cause back drafting in a furnace or water heater 3) the better your home's interior air quality will be.
Andy
nice wide open spaces
The gaps in cold air returns are often extensive. And you definitely do not want to be pulling air back to your furnace from garages, crawl spaces, attics, or unfinished basements.
Good video, but it was hard to hear, please get a wireless mic
Thank you, done and done. I got a mic a few months ago.
@@insulwiseenergycomfortsolu3293 awesome, look forward to new videos
Why is he skipping past those round holes in the returns that are like 1/2; dollar sized?
Those aren't holes, they are black plastic plugs that were inserted into the holes by a duct cleaning team. They seal pretty tight and did show any effect of leakage.