Proper air balancing of your HVAC system ensures that each room receives an equal amount of heated or cooled air. Doesn’t air “balance” naturally? Unfortunately, no. Since certain rooms are closer to the central furnace or air conditioner while others are further away, in an unbalanced system some rooms will be too chilly or too warm while others will be comfortable.
Air imbalances also have a negative impact on indoor air quality. An unbalanced system runs longer cycles, too, increasing your operating costs and accelerating wear and tear on your furnace and air conditioner.
When your house was built, the system was probably balanced after installation. Over time, however, many factors such as duct leakage, air infiltration, blower output and other changes gradually unbalance airflow. Air balancing restores harmony to your HVAC system.
The goal of professional air balancing is to equalize air flow, temperature and pressure in all rooms throughout the house. Here are the basic elements of the procedure.
A clean system air filter is installed.
Blower speed and air volume output specs are verified.
Temperature in all rooms is recorded with the furnace or air conditioner running.
Utilizing specialized tools to measure airflow, the volume of conditioned air entering each room through the supply duct and leaving through the return duct is measured.
Where an imbalance exists, the technician may use several methods to equalize supply air and return air in each room. Dampers inside ductwork that control airflow may be adjusted to allow more or less air. The blower speed may be altered to reduce or increase system air flow. Ductwork issues such as excessive air leakage may also need to be resolved.
Changing the flow of air into one room necessarily affects airflow throughout the entire system. Air balancing is therefore a painstaking process of making small adjustments and re-adjustments, along with repeating air flow and temperature measurements in each room, to achieve a state of perfect balance.
Ask the experts at Aggressive Mechanical Contractors for more details about air balancing for comfort, efficiency and improved air quality.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about air balancing and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 918-217-8273.