Duct Cleaning in Chattanooga, TN
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Seven months of heating pushes dust through the same ducts
Your furnace runs October through April here, seven months of the year. Every time it kicks on, air moves through the ducts and any dust sitting in them gets stirred up and pushed into the rooms you live in. Over a winter with nights averaging 32°F, that is a lot of cycles moving a lot of air.
Hamilton County also sees its share of wind and winter storms, 117 damaging wind events and 31 winter storms over the last ten years. When the power drops, the system stops pulling air for a while, then starts back up and pushes through whatever settled in the ducts while it was off. In a county where most homes are single-family and owner-occupied, that buildup is something the people living there deal with year after year, not a landlord's problem to pass along.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner does the same
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should air ducts be cleaned?
- There is no fixed schedule that fits every home, so most contractors go by condition rather than a calendar. If anyone in the house has allergies, or pets shed into the return vents, the ducts need attention more often. A home that just went through a renovation should have the ducts cleaned once the dust from that work has settled, since drywall dust and sawdust travel through the whole system.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It is worth it when there is a real reason behind it, like visible dust blowing out of the vents, a musty smell when the system runs, or a home that just had construction work done. It will not lower your heating bill or fix a furnace that already has problems. What it does is cut down on the dust and debris moving through the house, which matters here since the system runs from October through April.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor connects a vacuum to the duct system to pull it under negative pressure, then uses brushes or air whips to knock loose dust and debris from inside the ducts so it gets pulled into the vacuum instead of back into the house. This covers the supply and return ducts, the grilles, and usually the coil and blower housing while the system is open. The furnace filter gets replaced afterward since it is the last thing catching whatever debris made it that far.