Cold Humidity Solutions -Part 2

The other problem creating "cold humidty" is leaky ducts. If the air is leaking out of your ducts, chances are good that humid unconditioned air is leaking in when the system is off. The other problem is that if the return air ducts are leaky, you are sucking in air from an unconditioned space like attic or crawl space--yucky stuff!
The leaks can be manifested with a smoke bomb placed in either plenum. The simplest would be just to seal every exposed joint with a duct mastic. If there are doubts hire a professional duct leakage testing company.
Next time we will cover condensate drains and how much this can affect your system.

Cold Humidity Solutions 1

To help combat humidity getting back into home via the metal ducting one should do the obvious--insulate the ducting. The cleanest and easiest method is to use an insulation called "Reflectix" which is a foiled backed bubble wrap. All you need is enough to cover your ducting, spray adhesive, duct tape, and possibly some baling wire for certain sections. Measure diameter of ducts or measure around the circumference with a string, add about 3 inches and cut, put wrap up on duct, spray wrap (inside) and duct, let set for a couple of seconds and put pressure to wrap it around. You can add baling wire around long sections, and tape the seams. It will be a clean job and definitely not "itchy". Next time we'll cover checking the air leakage.

Mold In The News

Take a look at this video from 2009.  Keep in mind it was a new home at the time. Our energy efficiency

standards hurt our health.

Fox News report - mold sickens family

Fox News reported that a Virginia family was sickened by mold in their new, custom built, home. Watch it here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5tXlKN5uFA

If you come across any recent issues with mold please share them here. Next week we will discuss how to deal with this low temp high humidity problem we are having in Southwest Missouri.