Wildfires do not have to be in your backyard to impact your home and family. The effects of wildfires that are miles away can reach your home when smoke and ash blow your way in the wind. If your home has been impacted by the smoke from wildfires, scheduling an inspection of your home’s ductwork could be highly beneficial. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of scheduling duct cleaning and other home maintenance services to take excellent care of your home.
Duct Cleaning
The first step to improving you are indoor air quality following wildfires is to invest in duct cleaning. Sure, your air conditioner has a filter that is designed to capture some of the particles in the air and prevent them from entering your air conditioner. However, there is only so much that this filter can do for your home’s overall air quality.
Much of the pollution from wildfire smoke isn’t even visible in your air, so it makes it through those air filter fibers to spread throughout your air conditioner. Eventually, these particles settle in the network of ducts attached to your HVAC system. The particles continue to recirculate again and again as they get stirred up when airflow passes through. A professional HVAC team has the tools that are needed to eliminate dust, dirt, debris, and ash from your air ducts.
Duct Testing and Sealing
The next step is to test your ducts for leaks and then seal off any holes. In addition to particulates entering your ductwork directly through the air conditioner, they can also get in through holes in the fragile material of the ductwork or through broken seals. Your network of ducts is connected together at the joints and over time the seals can loosen and break.
These holes allow cool air to escape and pollution to get in. It doesn’t matter how clean we get your ducts during a cleaning appointment, if there are holes, pollutants will continue to get in. We can completely seal off your network of ducts and then pressurize the air to identify where holes and broken seals are. After repairing holes and duct sealing, your network of ducts should be completely airtight.
Other Considerations
While the two services above can help to eliminate existing pollution, you are continually bringing new pollution in from outside. If you really want to invest in your indoor air quality, we recommend a whole-house air purifier. This unit gets installed inside your HVAC system to eliminate 99% of all harmful particles in your air.
It’s installed in a place where all air has to pass before entering your ductwork and blowing into your home. It’s a great investment because you know that you can enjoy clean, fresh air inside your home, no matter what is going on outside, including wildfires. Plus, a whole-house air purifier has very low maintenance expectations. You only have to replace the filter or UV light occasionally.
California Indoor Comfort, where comfort and technology come together. Schedule an appointment today for your indoor air quality needs in Fresno, CA.