Duct cleaning is an important part of keeping a home healthy. Pollutants such as dust, mold, and other allergens can survive and before long thrive in your home’s air ducts, contaminating and polluting the air quality of your family’s home. These pollutants are especially dangerous when they come in contact with the respiratory systems of young children, whose bodies and minds are in a fragile developmental state, along with the elderly, whose immune systems have over time become less successful at dealing with germs such as bacteria, dust, mold, and other allergens.
Because of this importance of healthy indoor air, A-1 American recommends regular cleaning of your home’s heating and air conditioning system. Besides dangerous microbes and particles, animals can often find their way into the home’s ductwork and become trapped inside. Without sources of food and water, these rodents will usually die inside the air ducts. This brings with it conspicuous foul odors, and as the animal gradually decomposes this odor will become a stench, something undesirable for both the homeowner and his or her guests. Decomposition is almost always accompanied by decomposing bacteria, maggots, etc., so quick action with the right tools (in this case, a push-rod fiber optic camera and a highly-qualified duct cleaning tech) is of the utmost importance for the cleanliness of the home and the safety of its inhabitants. These new cameras are also highly useful in the detection of leaks and other problems in a home’s plumbing by A-1 American’s plumbing specialists using the same principals of inspection by camera used in ductwork diagnosis, plumbing clogs can be more easily identified and thus more easily fixed.
These camera inspection systems are attached to a “push rod” which allows the digital camera inspection system to be maneuvered through the labyrinthine maze that is your home’s ductwork. Air ducts do not support much weight at all, and will collapse under the weight of a normal adult human being, perhaps even a child’s. For this reason most ductwork was inspected by the HVAC technicians through a rudimentary “quick peek” before these new camera inspection technologies became widely available. This gave them a general idea of the cleanliness of the ductwork, but as ductwork often has lots of right angles, the naked eye often missed important breaches in the home’s air circulation pathways.
The following image provides an idea of the complexity of modern ductwork:
Crawl-spaces serve many of the same functions that a home’s ductwork does, with the main difference being that crawl-spaces are under the home while ductwork is suspended above the home inside the ceiling. The most likely culprits for damage in a home’s crawlspace are termite infestation, decomposing animals, and large pools of water which may lead to slow but sure erosion of the key elements in a home’s architectural foundation. A heating and air technician working inside crawl-spaces also finds these special camera inspection systems a boon to their line of work, allowing him or her to find otherwise undetectable problems.
Unlike a home’s ductwork, its crawl-spaces can support almost unlimited weight, allowing the technician free reign to navigate. In most cases, cameras used in crawl-space problem-identification allow a technician to locate problems without having to expend hours upon hours of labor in order to do so. Another important aspect of camera inspection usage inside ductwork and crawl-spaces is that it not only allows the HVAC technician to identify the problem(s) him or herself, but because the camera records its findings on video, the HVAC technician can provide the homeowner with proof of the findings. This allows the homeowner to put his or her trust into the scale of the problem, and thus the need for the proper solution. Camera inspection video recordings taken after the work is complete can also prove to the homeowner the extent to which the problem has been taken care of.
Technical Specifications of the Camera
The technology behind the digitized cameras is not worlds apart from any other modern image-capturing device. But keep in mind, these technical cameras are not cheap. A typical borescope with camera and recording capacities starts at about $900! These devices will almost always provide a high return on investment, as they do a great job at what they do. With that high price in mind, many smaller companies will have multiple technicians share the device, which may be a profitable decision based on the size of the company. Also, it should be noted that there are many different types of cameras that may be used by those experienced with HVAC systems, each designed with a specific purpose in mind. There are video borescopes, pipe cameras, micro borescopes, rigid borescopes, borescope cameras, fiber scopes, and more.
For more technical information on the cameras themselves, and for purchasing information, Click Here.
A-1 American Services provides air conditioning, heating and plumbing services, such as HVAC camera inspections, to homes and businesses in the Hampton Roads Virginia cities of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Newport News and Hampton and north into Williamsburg. A-1 American provides emergency service and repair, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including weekends and holidays. A-1 American charges by the job, not by the hour. A-1 American prides itself on immediate response, punctuality, courtesy and customer satisfaction. Call today 757-425-2400
