We have central air conditioning and heating which requires a duct system to deliver the cool or warm air to all the rooms. Our duct work is in the crawl space underneath the floors.

I have noticed that our home is very dusty compared to when we lived in the tropics and had no furnace at all and used window units for air conditioning (no duct work system, like we have now). I've decided that all the dust that accumulates all over everything in the house is coming from the duct system itself. My theory is that dust gets recycled back through the centralized furnace and air conditioner and recirculated back through the duct system and right back into the house again via the floor registers.

We've had our system inspected -- no leaks or anything and we use good filters at the fresh air return intake in the hallway. I thought filters were supposed to trap the dust and keep it from getting into the system. But apparently not. I wipe away the dust but after about a week my desk and everything has a thin layer of dust on it.

Does anyone else have a similar problem with dust?

Does it do any good to have the ducts professionally cleaned?

My central heating system throws dust also. I sealed and leaks in the ducts and change the filter regularly. I did inspect the inside of the ducts and they are pretty dirty after 40 years of use. (just bought the house 8 months ago) They need cleaning but its not high on my priority list... yet.
Also what happens is as the air circulates throughout the house everyday dust is getting moved around.
If you have the ducts cleaned, depending how dirty they are, you should see and feel a difference in air movement and dust control.
I would recommend getting the air ducts cleaned.

There are some great new products out there to stop your home pollution problems. An energy recovery ventilator (ERV) will pull fresh air in, filter it and exchange the room air heat to the new air. Filtering the fresh air while tranferring the heat makes them economical to operate.

Go to www.americanaldes.com www.broan.com www.carrier.com
www.suncourt.com

These units are really not that expensive and a DIYer can install them.

I think you should get the ducts sucked. Call a company that cleans duct work and you will notice a huge difference. Do it once a year. It doesn't cost much either. Good luck.

Is the hallway the ONLY return you have? If so, that would probably be why the rest of the house is dusty. In an ideal world, every room besides your basement, garage, laundry, kitchen, and bathrooms would have a return air duct/grill. The dust in each room with a return will be sucked into the system and filtered.

I bet you have very little dust in the hallway...



Magicman

I live in sunny AZ and for us desert rats, dust is a way of life. Compared to the tropics, just about any place would have more dust.