How You’re Wasting 20% of The Money You Spend to Cool Your Home

Imagine this: you’re away from home on a hot, humid day in the Naples area. Your throat is getting dry, so you decide to stop at the gas station and grab a bottle of water. You pay your $2 for a 16 oz bottle of water.

But when you get to your car and open it up, you notice that the bottle is partially empty. In fact, it’s missing one-fifth of the water. As you look behind you, you notice a trail of water. The bottle has been leaking!

Now this is only a minor inconvenience, so you may go back in the store and ask for a different bottle, or you may just guzzle it down and shrug it off.

But would your response change if you had paid $200 for that bottle of water? Now the missing 20% is worth $40! You paid $200 and only got $160 worth.

Sound far-fetched? Something like this is happening in your home - but instead of losing water, you’re losing the air you've paid to cool.

The average A/C system loses 20% of its air through its air ducts

According to ENERGY STAR, the average home’s air ducts lose 20% of the air that passes through them due to:

• Holes
• Leaks
• Poorly connected ducts

That means for every $1 you pay to cool your home, you only get about $0.80 worth out of your air conditioner. And when you add that up over the course of a month and year, the wasted money becomes very significant.

Want to know how much your home comfort system could be wasting? Do this:

Take your last month’s electric bill total. Now divide that number in half (ENERGY STAR estimates that close to half your yearly energy costs go toward cooling and heating your home.)

Now multiply that number by 0.2 (for example 150/2=75x0.2=15). That final number is how much money your air ducts could have wasted just this month.

How to tell if your air ducts are leaking

Not every home has this problem (although it is fairly common in Naples). So here are a few signs that your home may be bleeding your money through leaking ducts:

● Extremely high energy bills–Do your bills go sky-high when you turn on your air conditioner?
● Some rooms never get cool–Are there rooms in your home that are always warm and sticky?
● You can see kinked ductwork in your attic and crawlspace–When peeking in your attic, are there kinked ducts?
● Extremely dusty home and rooms–If your home always seems dusty, you may have leaking ducts. Holes, can pull in dust and debris from your attic and blow it into your home.

How to fix leaking air ducts

Because your air ducts are located within your walls, in your attic and/or in your crawlspace, they can be difficult to seal. You can either hire a professional air conditioning contractor or do it yourself.

Check out this guide by ENERGY STAR for more information.

Sealing your ducts will do two things, primarily:

• Increase your home's comfort
• Decrease your energy bills

Advanced Air serves Naples, Florida and the surrounding cities. For more information on any of our products and services, contact us today.