How To Quiet A Noisy Air Return

Noisy Air Ducts? Here's How to Make Them Quieter

Imagine information technology's a repose afternoon and you lot've got the house to yourself. Y'all slump down into the sofa. Y'all're going to put on some tunes - something mellow - and relax. Maybe you'll finally open up that new volume you've been pregnant to read.

Merely as shortly as you tap the play push button and open up your book - whoosh! The air conditioner roars to life.

At present you lot tin can barely hear your music. You'll have to turn up the volume. And while you'd similar to concentrate on your book, you lot tin't. Yous're worried that you might not hear the doorbell if information technology rings. Or your telephone if it vibrates on the counter.

Everything was fine until the air conditioner came on. Now those noisy air ducts are intruding on your solitude.

Except it might not be your ducts. It might be something else.

Ducts don't make much noise on their own. The air moving through them makes noise, and a variety of factors can make air movement more (or less) audible.

Earlier getting into the basics and bolts of ductwork and noise levels, permit's consider a few noise reduction nuts. If the air moving through your system makes a lot of racket, the beginning things to check on are:

• Airtight vent dampers: One closed damper probably won't make much difference, but endmost several dampers at in one case might brand your system noisier. Closing supply vents actually puts undue stress on your HVAC equipment. It'south a adept idea to go along them all open, noise or no noise.
• Sagging or bent flex ducts: If flexible ductwork isn't installed properly, it might sag or bend. Those sags and bends tin can brand it harder for your system to move air, which can increase static pressure and create dissonance.
• Dirty air filters or ducts: Over fourth dimension, the dust and clay buildup on your air filters and inside of your ducts makes it difficult for your equipment to move air. Information technology tin can also make the system noisier. The solution is to clean or replace your filter regularly and accept your ducts cleaned if they get-go to impede airflow.

If you're having duct noise problems in your Atlanta area dwelling house, our team can diagnose the problem and guide you to the best fix.

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If you've checked on all of these things and addressed the problems, your ducts might not seem so noisy. Merely if they do - and you lot're nifty on making your system quieter - there are some boosted steps you can take.

High static pressure level makes airflow more aural

We've written nigh static pressure before. Every arrangement has some, but many systems have too much. When static pressure is too high, it means your ducts tin can't fairly suit the volume of air that your equipment is trying to move through them.

And when the volume of air exceeds what your ducts are intended to handle, you get noise.

High static force per unit area is a common problem. While every home is different and requires a unique fix, here are some of the nearly common solutions to air dissonance resulting from "high static:"

• Accommodate the fan speed. Your blower or furnace fan should be prepare to deliver the proper airflow per ton. In theory, your HVAC installer configured it properly during installation. In reality, not all installations are perfect and many fans are set at too high a speed. It'south often possible to select a lower fan speed, which will reduce static pressure equally well as air noise. This fix only works when the fan speed was too loftier in the start place. Reducing the speed when the organization was properly set up could result in a lack of airflow throughout your home.
• Add together ductwork. Sometimes, equipment is sized properly, but ducts are too small-scale to adapt the volume of air. When this is the case - and it'south a common problem! - increasing ductwork tin decrease static pressure and make your system quieter. We usually install larger ducts in the attainable area around your blower or furnace and tin can oftentimes expand the size of your return and supply plenums.
• Add together a featherbed duct. If you have multiple zones within a single arrangement, it'south sometimes possible to add together a bypass duct that relieves force per unit area within the arrangement and reduces dissonance.
• Add together or expand grilles and registers. In our experience, most homes don't have enough return air. Calculation new returns or increasing the size of an existing grille is one way to subtract static pressure and assist your system motion air. It tin can cut downwards on noise, too. When possible (and when it makes sense), we tin can also necktie new supply registers into your ductwork or increase the size of existing supply registers.
• Replace existing registers and grilles with loftier velocity models. Sometimes, the type of registers and grilles you have are to arraign for the loud air noise. Switching them out for "loftier velocity" alternatives can allow more airflow and lower static pressure level.

Another way to decrease airflow noise: Upgrade to a variable speed blower

If it'southward time to replace your HVAC system, you're in luck! Assuming you select a new system with a variable speed blower, information technology's almost sure to exist quieter than the standard blower y'all're replacing.

That'southward because variable speed blower or furnace fans commonly run at a low speed, circulating air throughout your home more than consistently than the onetime school, on/off systems you're probably used to. The fan speed varies depending on the cooling or heating load, just the fan operates at lower speeds most of the time.

And since less air is moving through your ducts, noise levels are lower - sometimes dramatically and so.

You'll still know your system is working. Later on all, information technology's pretty obvious whether you're comfortable or not! But yous might non hear information technology running unless you stand up under a supply annals and listen. In some systems, variable speed blowers really are that quiet!

A quick give-and-take nearly hard pipe vs. flexible ductwork

All else being equal, hard pipe ducts are noisier than flexible ducts. Air moving over metallic is just… louder. Compared with flexible ductwork that contains no obstructions, kinks, or bends, yous'll probably hear more than dissonance with hard pipage ducts.

Hard pipe ductwork is less prone to kinks and bends, so it's usually ameliorate for airflow. Flexible ductwork is prone to kinks and bends, so information technology presents more points of failure for airflow.

Basically, flex ducts = less noise and possible airflow bug while hard pipe ducts = more noise and fewer airflow problems. It's a tradeoff.

That's not to say hard pipage ducts are ever loud. Assuming they're properly sized for your dwelling house and your system, y'all'll probably hear minimal noise from all-hard pipage ducts. If you've got a variable speed blower, that's definitely the case.

Just be enlightened that hard pipage ducts tend to be noisier than their flexible counterparts. Not always, just usually.

Then there's the central return "problem."

Here's some other state of affairs where system infrastructure makes it hard to cut down on noise: Homes with a unmarried, key return. You lot see these in smaller homes, like condos.

In these homes, builders sometimes install a furnace or air handler right on the return plenum, which is ducted to the central return or, occasionally, a hole in the wall with a grille on the other side. Even with variable speed equipment, information technology can be difficult to quiet these systems since the blower motor is right there and there's minimal space for boosted ductwork.

The problem has to do with space and design. If there's enough infinite to add ductwork or rearrange the system components, that can help with noise. Other space/design problems include an air handler installed just behind a chamber wall or a furnace that wasn't installed on condom pads.

Sometimes, it'due south possible to fix these problems. But not always.

Noisy ducts are nearly e'er a symptom of a bigger problem

We simply took up a lot of space discussing static pressure, HVAC equipment sizes, and ductwork installation quality - all in an commodity near airflow racket! That's because the dissonance itself isn't normally the problem. You need to fix the affair causing the noise.

After checking for airtight vents and fixing kinked or sagging flex duct, your best move is to accept an HVAC professional person measure the static pressure in your organization. If you're hearing a lot of noise, static pressure is probably loftier. After checking things out, the contractor will likely propose one or more than of the solutions we just discussed.

Set up the bigger trouble, and the dissonance commonly goes away. And then you can finally relish those tunes, swoop into that book, and take a load off. You lot tin can also forget almost those pesky HVAC and air duct problems.

Yous won't take them anymore.

Source: https://www.pvhvac.com/blog/noisy-air-ducts-heres-how-to-make-them-quieter

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