你应该清洁你家里的风管吗?

You should consider having the air ducts in your home cleaned if:

• There is substantial visible mold growth inside hard surface (e.g., sheet metal) ducts or on other components of your heating and cooling system. There are several important points to understand concerning mold detection in heating and cooling systems:
• Many sections of your heating and cooling system may not be accessible for a visible inspection, so ask the service provider to show you any mold they say exists.
• You should be aware that although a substance may look like mold, a positive determination of whether it is mold or not can be made only by an expert and may require laboratory analysis for final confirmation. 大约50美元, some microbiology laboratories can tell you whether a sample sent to them on a clear strip of sticky household tape is mold or simply a substance that resembles it.
• If you have insulated air ducts and the insulation gets wet or moldy it cannot be effectively cleaned and should be removed and replaced.
• If the conditions causing the mold growth in the first place are not corrected, 霉菌会再次生长.
• 管道里有害虫，例如.g. (rodents or insects); or
• 导管 are clogged with excessive amounts of dust and debris and/or particles are actually released into the home from your supply registers.

If any of the conditions identified above exists, it usually suggests one or more underlying causes. 清洗之前, 改造, 或者更换你的导管, the cause or causes must be corrected or else the problem will likely recur.

Some research suggests that cleaning heating and cooling system components (e.g., 冷却线圈, fans and heat exchangers) may improve the efficiency of your system, 使用寿命更长, as well as some energy and maintenance cost savings. 然而, little evidence exists that cleaning only the ducts will improve the efficiency of the system.

You may consider having your air ducts cleaned simply because it seems logical that air ducts will get dirty over time and should be occasionally cleaned. 只要清洁工作做得好, no evidence suggests that such cleaning would be detrimental. EPA确实 not recommend that the air ducts be cleaned routinely, but only as needed. EPA确实, 然而, 建议如果您有燃料燃烧炉, 火炉或壁炉, they be inspected for proper functioning and serviced before each heating season to protect against carbon monoxide poisoning.

如果你决定清理你的通风管道, take the same consumer precautions you normally would in assessing the service provider's competence and reliability.

Air duct cleaning service providers may tell you that they need to apply chemical biocide to the inside of your ducts as a means to kill bacteria (germs) and fungi (mold) and prevent future biological growth. They may also propose the application of a "sealant" to prevent dust and dirt particles from being released into the air or to seal air leaks. You should fully understand the pros and cons of permitting the application of chemical biocides or sealants. While the targeted use of chemical biocides and sealants may be appropriate under specific circumstances, research has not demonstrated their effectiveness in duct cleaning or their potential adverse health effects. No chemical biocides are currently registered by EPA for use in internally-insulated air duct systems (see Should chemical biocides be applied to the inside of air ducts?).

Whether or not you decide to have the air ducts in your home cleaned, preventing water and dirt from entering the system is the most effective way to prevent contamination.

资料来源:美国环境保护局