Dirty Ducts

You should consider having the air ducts in your Virginia Beach home cleaned if:

There is substantial visible mold growth inside hard     surface (e.g., sheet metal) ducts or on other components of your heating     and cooling system. There are several important points to understand concerning mold detection     in Virginia Beach heating and cooling systems:
Many sections of your heating and cooling system may not be accessible for a visible inspection, so ask your Virginia Beach HVAC specialist to show you any mold they say exists.
You should be aware that although a substance may look     like mold, a positive determination of whether it is mold or not can be     made only by an expert and may require laboratory analysis for final     confirmation. For about $50, some microbiology laboratories can tell you     whether a sample sent to them on a clear strip of sticky household tape     is mold or simply a substance that resembles it.
If you have insulated air ducts and the     insulation gets wet or moldy it cannot be effectively cleaned and should     be removed and replaced.
If the conditions causing the mold growth in the first     place are not corrected, mold growth will recur.

Ducts are infested with vermin, e.g. (rodents or     insects); or
Ducts are clogged with excessive amounts of dust and     debris and/or particles are actually released into the home from your     supply registers.

If any of the conditions identified above exists, it usually suggests one or more underlying causes. Prior to any cleaning, retrofitting, or replacing of your ducts, the cause or causes must be corrected or else the problem will likely recur.

Some research suggests that cleaning heating and cooling system components (e.g., cooling coils, fans and heat exchangers) may improve the efficiency of your Virginia Beach system, resulting in a longer operating life, as well as some energy and maintenance cost savings. However, little evidence exists that cleaning only the ducts will improve the efficiency of the system.

You may consider having your air ducts cleaned simply because it seems logical that air ducts will get dirty over time and should be occasionally cleaned. Provided that the cleaning is done properly, no evidence suggests that such cleaning would be detrimental. EPA does not recommend that the air ducts be cleaned routinely, but only as needed. EPA does, however, recommend that if you have a fuel burning furnace, stove or fireplace, they be inspected for proper functioning and serviced before each heating season to protect against carbon monoxide poisoning.

If you do decide to have your air ducts cleaned, take the same consumer precautions you normally would in assessing the service provider’s competence and reliability.

Article Source: http://epa.gov/iaq/pubs/airduct.html#how_to_prevent

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