With our temperature lows still plummeting below freezing, there’s no denying that we still have a lot more cold weather ahead. This means that making sure your heating system is functioning as effectively and efficiently as possible is essential to your comfort and your financial efficiency. This is done, first, by ensuring you schedule maintenance each year—we hope you did this before winter began. It’s also about taking care of any repair needs that came up during maintenance.
So, what if you’ve done all this and something just seems… off… about your furnace or heat pump’s ability to keep your home warm? Well, one of the biggest culprits to energy and efficiency loss is leaky ductwork. It’s something that not a lot of homeowners consider, since most ductwork is out of sight and therefore out of mind. But proper, professional duct sealing will keep your heater and your central AC system from losing about 20-30% of the conditioned air moving through it. This means you’re getting all that you pay for each month!
“Wait, I Need Professional Duct Sealing?”
If it ends up that you need to have your ducts sealed, then yes, you need duct sealing services… from a professional. There’s a common misconception—albeit an understandable one—that all that is needed to seal off or repair faulty ductwork is duct tape. Duct tape is extremely useful! It helps you close boxes and temporarily holds objects in place—but let’s emphasize that word “temporarily.” Duct tape does not solve the root of the problem.
“So Why Is It Called Duct Tape, Then?”
We understand this inquiry, and we’re not totally sure where the term comes from—but we can offer some insight into its history. Duct tape is a consumer-grade tape that’s available in just about any hardware or craft story, and its purpose when it was developed during the time of the first World War was to quickly seal up ammo boxes. And here’s the kicker—it was actually called duck tape.
There are a couple of possible explanations for its name. It was either from its duck-cloth backing, or due to its water resistant features reminding people of how water washes off of a duck’s oiled back.
In the 1950’s, though the origin is unknown, duck became duct, and it’s believed that due to the name change, homeowners and handymen alike started using this tape to repair and seal ductwork. But they found that due to the temperature changes that go on within the ducts, the tape would become brittle and start breaking down, and therefore the duct tape starts chipping or peeling off.
The Power of a Professional
There’s good news in all of this! Just because store-bought duct tape doesn’t work, doesn’t mean your ducts have to be repaired or replaced. As we mentioned above, you can have a professional seal them for you. Our professionals use a special mastic or metallic tape for the job. This is far stronger than duct tape and is designed specifically to seal off leaky ducts.
One more important part of trusting a pro, is that we’ll be able to determine exactly where your air leaks are coming from and fix the trouble right at the source so it doesn’t happen again.
At Covenant Heating and Cooling, we are “Dedicated to the Promise of Serving You.” Contact us today for expert Hendersonville duct sealing services and more!