Do You Need a Duct Booster Fan?
Do You Need a Duct Booster Fan?
25/09/2020 11:10 Do You Need a Duct Booster Fan? Ever feel frustrated by your HVAC system’s inability to provide conditioned air to some of the rooms furthest away from the central AC unit? You are not alone – insufficient airflow is one of the most common AC complaints that clients ask about. We speak to tons of people who are at a loss as to why their expensively installed HVAC system is able to serve some rooms much better than others. While there are plenty of reasons for this, one of the main ones tends to be a small or weak fan that is incapable of moving the right amount of air through the ductwork and out of the vents. In cases like these, it is recommended that homeowners install an air duct booster fan. In this article, we take you through the ins and outs of HVAC booster fans to help you work out whether installing one in your home may solve your issues. What Is a Duct Booster Fan? An AC duct booster fan is basically a fan that can be attached to the ductwork in an HVAC system. Designed to increase the airflow to the more distant parts of a home, a boost fan will typically be installed in long sections of ductwork and then hooked up to an electricity supply. There are two main types of HVAC booster fan: Inline Booster Fans Inline booster fans are built to be installed inside the ductwork itself. Because they can shift large volumes of conditioned air, inline booster fans are often used in larger properties with extensive networks of ducts. Inline booster fans look somewhat like a regular section of ductwork. They are designed to replace a section of regular ductwork, so it is essential to choose one with the same dimensions of your existing ducts. An inline booster fan will cost somewhere in the region of $30 to $200 (not including installation costs), but once installed, they are cheap to run and do not use much in the way of electricity. Register Fans Instead of being installed as part of the ductwork itself, register fans are designed to replace the registers in rooms that are receiving low airflow. Register fans are cheaper and cost less to install. They also plug directly into the wall. Some of the better models have thermostats, variable speed options, and remote-control operation. Register fans will typically cost between $30 and $80. However, the amount that you save on a single unit will likely be offset when you have to install multiple fans in each room in which you need to increase airflow. What are the Advantages of Duct Booster Fans? Duct booster fans may not solve the airflow problems in an HVAC system on their own, but they can help increase air circulation in a number of ways. There are several significant advantages of having a duct booster fan or register fan: 1. Boosting Older Ductwork Modern HVAC systems have revolutionized how we heat and cool our homes. However, merely installing a powerful new AC unit or furnace may not yield the results that it should if you live in a home that has ductwork from another era. Old ductwork did not use today’s airflow technology in its design and often fails to pull air through the system to supply all rooms of the house, evenly leaving you with warm or cold spots in your home. In cases where you have old ductwork, it can often be much more cost-effective to install a duct booster or set of register fans to help move the air through the ductwork better. 2. Extra Power for Complex Ductwork Layout Larger properties with many rooms or several floors often require complex ductwork systems to connect the whole indoor environment up to the HVAC system. By the simple laws of thermodynamics, a more extensive system of ductwork will mean that warm or cool air will be lost due to low airflow to rooms that are further away from the HVAC unit. Duct booster fans can be an effective way of moving air past the many bends and divisions that usually feature in larger networks of ductwork. Inline booster fans can be placed strategically near sections with registers to help pull more of the air past them so that more of it reaches underserviced rooms and areas. 3. Put Off Costly Repairs In some cases, booster fans can be used to effectively put a bandaid on an HVAC unit that is not working that well anyway. We do not necessarily recommend doing this, but some people install duct booster fans or register fans to increase airflow to avoid paying money for repairs or a new HVAC unit that is capable of pulling through higher volumes of conditioned air. When a Duct Booster Fan Will Not Work There are several cases in which installing a duct booster fan will not provide the necessary solution. If your ductwork is old and has cracks and holes through which air is escaping, it is unlikely that simply pulling through more air is going to make much difference to the volume of airflow in hard-to-reach rooms of the home. Similarly, if your HVAC or furnace unit is old and worn out so that it no longer produces sufficient conditioned air, increasing the airflow with a fan will have no effect. Before you have a duct booster fan installed, you should first check that the other parts of your system are working correctly. Your airflow problems may be caused by damaged or leaky ductwork or a condenser that needs replacing. If you want to install a duct booster fan, you should contact a local HVAC contractor for advice. They will perform a series of tests and diagnostics to ensure that your airflow problem is not the result of any underlying problems with your existing HVAC system before recommending that you proceed with the installation. Attempting to do the job on your own is not recommended if you have no prior HVAC training and experience, as working with ductwork can be complicated and required specialist knowledge and tools.
VP