When you are thinking about all of the negative things that can happen within your home and how they can impact your quality of life and your health, mold has to be at the top of the list. Mold is a very scary thing to homeowners for so many reasons. Mold is frightening due to the fact that it can really sneak up on a homeowner. By the time you realize that you have a mold problem, you are already in too deep and you have to take serious action to rectify the problem. On top of that, depending on how long the mold has been there, you could have been facing a lot of health risks along the way.
What to Look For
When you are talking about mold growth and an aging HVAC unit, there are things that you should be on the lookout for. AC companies in Ponte Vedra, FL will always tell you to focus on the air vents or the air ducts. Look at the air ducts when they are running and try and get close to them. Do you smell anything coming out of the air ducts? The thing to be on the lookout for here is a musty odor. In the event that you have a musty odor coming out of the ducts, it could be a sign of a mold problem.
The other thing that you want to be on the lookout for is the color of the air ducts. Do you see discoloration on the air vents themselves or the grilles? When this type of discoloration is appearing the likely cause of this is mold being backed up in the ducts themselves. AC companies in Ponte Vedra FL like ours can take care of this for you, but you have to get to the root cause of the problem.
Cause of Mold Growth from an HVAC Unit
The reason that you can end up with mold from your HVAC unit is due to the way that the climate is in the Ponte Vedra FL area. When you are one of the many AC companies in Ponte Vedra FL operating to help homeowners and businesses, you see this all of the time. The hot and humid air in the summer months is the root cause of where the mold can come from. What happens is when your air conditioning system runs it’s working to remove the moisture from the air. The moisture is collected at the coil of the system and dropped out of a drain that goes outside of your home or business.
When you have an old HVAC unit it is not going to be able to keep up with all of the moisture from the humidity. When you are in a high-humidity environment, there will exist humidity in the air rather than it being dispensed out the drain. This is going to result in moisture that is left building up in the air ducts, the grilles, and other areas. It is that moisture that can allow the growth of mold over a period of time.
Mold Grows Quickly
Mold can grow extremely quickly once you start to have moisture building up in the air ducts of your HVAC system. Within just 48 hours of that moisture being present, mold can begin to form and once it does, when the air passes through, so will the bacteria and such from the mold throughout the rest of the home.
Air quality is what it is all about when you are talking about your HVAC unit. You want the system your AC company Ponte Vedra FL installs in your home to be effective and efficient at delivering cool air and also keeping the air quality of your home at a high level. Mold is nothing to mess around with and understanding how mold growth can spark from an aging HVAC unit and the system can help you put into perspective the importance of maintenance and replacement when the time comes.
Mold Can Grow Undetected
Mold is usually something that grows in areas that you cannot see with your own two eyes, making it an extremely scary thing. When you live in a climate that has humidity levels of over 55%, which is certainly the case in the Jacksonville, FL area, there is an increased risk of mold growing in the walls and such. One of the more common areas where mold is found though is in the air ducts of HVAC systems. Air ducts are an easy place for mold to grow due to all of the moisture that passes through them. Once it starts to grow, it can spread quite rapidly.
Why the Air Ducts
What is it about the air ducts of our HVAC system that make it so easy for mold to grow? What happens with your HVAC system is that it is constantly looking to extract as much of the humidity or moisture out of your home as possible. When it does this what it is doing is working to take that moisture and pass it through the air ducts and outside out of a drain pipe. When the humidity is too high or your system is not running that effectively, the air ducts can actually have moisture left and right in them. When you couple this with the dust and such that you can get in your ducts over time, you have the recipe of moisture, humidity, and bacteria that can easily allow the mold to grow.
Health Hazard
Mold can cause so many different types of health problems that it is scary to say the very least. In the event that you are someone who suffers from nosebleeds, mold can make them spark more frequently and easily. Mold can also cause things such as hair loss, dermatitis, chronic fatigue, depression, as well as several other health issues. You want to pay special attention to the risk mold presents to help fight the health hazards that are always present.
The dangers of mold are real and they can truly have a negative impact on the quality of life that you have in your home. Doing your part is absolutely pivotal and going through the steps to have a professional perform air duct cleaning in Jacksonville is something that can be very valuable. The more that you work to prevent the growth and spreading of mold the better off you are going to be. You always want your home to be safe and by addressing mold in a continuous fashion through prevention, detection, and extraction if necessary, you will be on the right path.
