Did you know that air ducts can be home to dust, dust mites, and allergens that can make you sick? It’s easy to overlook this essential part of your office space, but when the air ducts can affect you and your employee’s health, it’s time to prioritize cleaning your system.
A crucial step of HVAC maintenance is regularly cleaning the air ducts, ensuring their efficiency. If you’re scratching your head and getting that panicky feeling inside, don’t despair. Read on to learn some important info about the parts of your HVAC system that need to be cleaned.
Why Bother Cleaning Your Business HVAC?
Suppose dust mites and allergens aren’t enough to make you want to climb into your air ducts and give them a thorough scrub. In that case, you might be interested to know that the United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that some air pollutants are two to five times higher than outdoors.
That stat should concern anyone who breathes because air pollution is linked to:
- problems with the eyes, nose, and throat
- headaches and fatigue
- heart disease
- cancer
- respiratory disease
Familiar indoor air pollution sources are things like tobacco, ovens, fireplaces, cleaning supplies, paints, and building materials. These things can accumulate in the vents and lead to a decline in you and your employee’s health, and the longevity of your HVAC system.
By performing regularly scheduled HVAC maintenance, you can reduce your exposure to common indoor air pollutants and stay safe and healthy.
Parts of the HVAC to Clean
The HVAC system is made up of multiple moving pieces and parts, including:
- air ducts
- static fire dampers or dynamic fire dampers
- vents
- registers
- air filters
Some of these parts can be cleaned and maintained by business owners, and others are harder to reach and might require professional help. Let’s dive into each part and how to have them cleaned.
How to Clean Air Ducts
According to the EPA, you don’t need to have the air ducts cleaned regularly, just on an as-needed basis. This is a good thing because this is one part of the system that will require hiring a professional. Cost can typically range from $450-$1000 and depend on the region, the system’s size, and the level of build-up or contamination.
When you hire a professional to clean your air ducts, this typically includes:
- the supply and return air ducts
- the grilles
- the registers
- diffusers
- heat exchangers and coils
- drip pans
- fan
- unit housing
You should thoroughly research and vet anyone that’s going to clean your air ducts the same way you would for any other building project. Besides cleaning the parts mentioned above, the provider might suggest cleaning and applying sealants or chemical biocides. While there may be situations in which these measures are appropriate, in general, they are unnecessary and could carry potential health dangers.
How to Clean Fire Dampers
Fire dampers are an essential part of passive fire safety in businesses to prevent the spread of fires and decrease potential fatalities and structural loss. Fire dampers must remain in working order to do their jobs in the event of an emergency.
It is unlikely that you have a thorough understanding of a fire damper’s mechanics as a home or business owner. Still, you likely know that they require regularly scheduled inspections. Depending on the kind of fire damper in the air ducts, they should be inspected and cleaned every one to two years.
While the code does not specify that a certified technician performs the inspection, testing, and cleaning, it’s highly recommended. Professionals are well versed on how fire dampers work, what could potentially go wrong, how to fix problems, and how to clean a fire damper thoroughly.
How to Clean Vents and Registers
Air vents are part of the air duct that narrow and direct heat or AC flow through the registers. The registers are the grates in most rooms that typically have a manual option to open and close a damper behind the vented grate. These are parts of the HVAC system that can be cleaned by you or a cleaning crew and don’t require professional help. You should clean the vents for the same reason it’s important to dust your building regularly—they can be a collection site for dander, dust mites, pet hair, and other allergens.
To clean your air vents and registers, grab a screwdriver, a vacuum cleaner and its hose attachment, a long-handled scrub brush, and a cleaning cloth. Turn off the HVAC system before you begin.
Cleaning the vents is as simple as unscrewing the registers, wiping, rinsing, and scrubbing them, and then setting them to the side before moving on to the vents. Use your vacuum to sweep away any debris before scrubbing the vent clean with your long-handled scrub brush. Once you’ve loosened everything, use a damp cloth to wipe it clean. Ensure you thoroughly dry the vent and the register before fitting the register back into the vent and screwing it into place.
How to Clean Air Filters
You should always clean and or replace the filter on your HVAC unit every three months. If you have a pet friendly office or have employees that suffer from allergies, you should clean or replace the filter more often. Throw disposable filters away when they’re full and dirty. Permanent filters can be rinsed with a garden hose or in the sink or tub. Always allow the filter to dry completely before reinserting it into your unit. If you are cleaning and allowing your filter to dry for several hours, ensure that your HVAC system remains off until the filter is returned.
Cleaning your HVAC system can seem overwhelming at first when you consider all the parts and pieces lying below the surface. However, with a bit of practice and a few tools, you’ll be a pro at cleaning your filters, registers, and air vents. However, you should leave the cleaning of your fire dampers and air ducts to the pros. These items require less frequent cleaning but are equally important to maintain for the health and safety of anyone that steps foot in your home or building!
