FAQs

Metal duct systems that have been used with an evaporative cooler (sometimes called a swamp cooler) will often become rusty and leak air. After 15-20 years being located in the extreme conditions of Southwestern attics, the vinyl vapor barrier and the plastic inner liner of flex duct, as well as the duct tape that was used to connect them will become dry, brittle, crack and fail. These conditions will lead to increased duct leakage and degraded duct insulation. Flex duct is similar to your roof underlayment, it must be replaced about ever 15-20 years or it will begin to leak and eventually fail.

Each room in your home needs a specific amount of airflow to maintain comfort. An unbalanced duct system will deliver too little airflow to some rooms and too much to others, leading to hot and cold rooms.

Undersized ducts, grills and filters will cause lower airflow, increased air pressure and higher air velocity in the duct system. Lower airflow lower’s your equipment’s capacity and causes comfort problems. Increased air pressure makes your HVAC equipment work harder, increasing energy consumption and reducing its lifespan. Increased air pressure also leads to more duct leakage. Higher air velocity leads to turbulence and noise.

Bedrooms, home offices and other occupied rooms with interior doors restrict the conditioned air supplied to those rooms from making a return trip back to the air handler unless they have a pressure relief duct. A pressure relief duct can be a dedicated return, jump duct, high/low grills or transfer grills. Without one of these devices installed, air will be forced under the door (creating a grey strip below the door as carpeting becomes an “air filter”), as well as out of the room through any gap or crack around windows, lights, ceiling fans, outlets, switches, etc. In addition to this air leakage, the room will not receive enough airflow with the door closed, causing comfort and air quality problems.

Leaky ducts cause a host of problems. With duct leakage, conditioned air is lost to outside and unconditioned air from the attic, garage or outdoors gets pulled in. This creates a comfort problem, as the equipment will struggle to keep up during summer peak temperatures. It also creates a problem with utility bills as the equipment will run longer and more often to cool the super-heated attic, garage, or outdoor air. Air quality is impacted as unfiltered, dirty air is pulled into the home and duct system. Finally, equipment longevity is impacted as the equipment both works harder and the coil, blower wheel and motor get caked in duct that causes additional excessive wear and tear.

Southwestern attics create a brutal environment. Poorly insulated ducts allow this excessive heat (often over 150°F in the summer) to enter the ducts and heat up the conditioned air before it ever enters the home. Typical homes in the desert Southwest lose about 1/3 of their equipment’s cooling capacity to the attic. High utility bills are an obvious problem. However, comfort is also an issue, because the air coming out of grills at the end of a run can be 5-6 degrees warmer than grills closer to the equipment. Equipment durability is also impacted due to excessive run-time to make up for the cooling capacity lost to the attic through poorly insulated ducts.

Excessive attic temperatures more easily enter the house through the ceiling if the attic is poorly insulated.  High utility bills, comfort problems and excess equipment wear and tear are common problems caused by this.

Attic temperatures can be more than 40 degrees warmer than outside temperatures in the summer due to insufficient passive attic ventilation. High utility bills, comfort problems and excess equipment wear and tear are common problems caused by this.

Garage temperatures can be more than 20 degrees warmer than outside temperatures in the summer due to hot vehicles parked inside and metal garage doors radiating and trapping summer heat. High utility bills, comfort problems and excess equipment wear and tear are common problems caused by this. In addition, garages are a source of very unhealthy air caused by vehicle exhaust and off-gassing of paints, paint thinner, solvents, pesticides, oils, gasoline, and other items typically stored in garages. If not properly ventilated, these unhealthy gases can pass through into the living space of the home.

Over time, dryer vent pipes accumulate lint from the dryer. If not cleaned regularly, this accumulated lint can build up and restrict dryer exhaust air. The flexible dryer vent connector can also get crushed or kinked behind a dryer. These restrictions cause the dryer exhaust air to increase in temperature, raising the risk of fire in extreme cases. The restrictions also cause the dryer to take longer to dry clothes, increasing utility bills. Finally, the air restrictions cause the dryer to excessively heat and “cook” clothes instead of drying them. Clothes that shrink, become discolored, and wear out faster are problems caused by a restricted dryer vent.

Let’s face it, most builder-grade bath fans are cheap, noisy, fail to exhaust much air and have plastic covers that rapidly yellow and are unattractive. These fans fail in their core mission of exhausting bathroom odors and humidity. They also consume more electricity than necessary. Take the toilet paper test: if your bath fan cannot hold a sheet of toilet paper against its grill without falling, it is not exhausting enough air to properly manage odors and humidity.

Proper filtration is critical for both equipment protection and indoor air quality. Poorly performing filters cause dust to accumulate on equipment, shortening its life. They also allow particulates such as dust, pet dander, mold spores, smoke, bacteria and viruses to remain airborne and negatively impact your health. High velocity air caused by undersized filters reduces the effectiveness of the filter and introduces both noise and air pressure that increases equipment energy consumption.

In most homes, all ventilation fans are exhaust-only: bath fans, laundry vents, kitchen hood vents, etc. When these fans operate, the air that exits the home must be made up somewhere. In most homes without a dedicated, filtered, fresh air duct, hot, dirty, unfiltered air from the attic, garage and outdoors is pulled through cracks and gaps around windows, doors, lights, fans, outlets, switches, under drywall, etc. This impacts your family’s health by reducing indoor air quality.

Builders have intense cost pressure and competition. When given a choice between spending more on something hidden in the attic that most homeowners will never see or spending more or visible features such as cabinets, counter tops, flooring, etc., builders make the logical business decision to invest in the features that will help them sell more homes. Thus, HVAC systems, including the ductwork and attic receive the bare minimum to help the home maintain comfort to avoid warranty calls. Doing the job properly from the beginning to ensure great comfort, low utility bills, great indoor air quality, minimal noise, long equipment life, etc. is your priority as a homeowner, but it is not a builder priority.

Because builders have intense cost pressure, they in turn pressure their HVAC contractors to lower their costs as well. Installing a minimally acceptable system that will perform through the warranty period (typically 2 years) is the mission of the new construction contractor. Neither HVAC contractors nor builders want the complexity of customizing a HVAC system for the unique needs of each home while it is under construction. Instead, they build each home with the same plan exactly the same, regardless of its solar orientation on the lot or if certain options are selected. Code changes have required that homes built in the past 10+ years be tested for energy performance (properly installed insulation, building air leakage, duct air leakage, etc.). However, many builders us a “sampling” system where only a small portion of homes are actually tested. Thus, even modern homes have dramatic room for improvement for the originally installed HVAC system and the attic it resides in.

Some service and replacement (i.e. do not do new construction) HVAC contractors will do minor duct modifications, such as adding a return or fixing a crushed duct. However, these companies generally do not have the expertise to design and install a replacement duct system that is properly buried under insulation. Service and replacement contractors are focused almost exclusively on the equipment only. As a homeowner, when the equipment fails, you know it and call for service. When your equipment is 10+ years old, you know it will soon be time to replace it. Service & replacement contractors are focused on this market. Imagine if every home had a free-flowing, sealed, well-insulated, balanced duct system that allowed HVAC equipment to consistently operate for 20-25 years before replacement and rarely needing service. This would be terrible for business for both HVAC equipment manufacturers and their dealers, the service and replacement contractors. Knights of the Attic is different. We do not service or replace HVAC equipment. Instead, we replace or improve all the components and systems that connect to the equipment. We want our customers to have a great experience working with us but then do not need our services again for decades, unless you wish to make your improvements stepwise over time.

We take the approach of educating our customers, presenting options and offering our recommendations. You will never receive a high-pressure sales pitch from Knights of the Attic. We help you decide “how right to you want it to be.” After completing our assessment and answering any questions, we will always present four options: (1) “Let’s do it all at once”, (2) “Give me the most bang for my buck”, (3) “Only the minimum recommendations for now”, and (4) “What is the cost of doing nothing”. We will also share details of various incentive programs, including rebates (government and utility) as well as tax credits available to reduce the cost these services. In addition, we will present various financing options and a net investment analysis, i.e. subtracting the projected utility bill savings against the monthly cost of the service. By combining incentives and financing, many of our services generate a net savings for customers, especially during summer months when utility bills are the highest.