My story of clean air, parenthood, asthma, and the joy of helping people
Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) is responsible for about 40% of an average residential house energy consumption
When I moved to the USA I aimed to learn how to save energy and get “greener” by using less of it. As a Ukrainian citizen, I experienced closely the Energy crisis of 2009 and wanted to understand better which approach the US applies to maintain energy efficiency and conservation.
But the lack of technical knowledge left me with no choice but V (from HVAC) which stands for Ventilation. Ventilation is “the lungs of the house”. I was horrified by the annually increasing numbers of kids getting asthma and allergies and disappointed by certain business approaches I witnessed getting into the industry. Heating and AC technicians did take care of tenants’ comfort but not of indoor air quality and proper ventilation.
Duct cleaning is still considered unessential because the market is packed with “scam players”. You all have seen those guys with heavy vacuums, who has no clue of how to clean and maintain ventilation systems properly. And those who do crazy upsales in the field. Working as a hired technician in 2013, I was able to see how shady the segment is. Companies provided us with schedules with only 2h slots per each service, demanding to upsell as much as we could. Considering the situation my goal was to change the duct cleaning standard in a neighborly community by helping 10K families breathe cleaner and healthy air. And avoid mistakes other Air Duct companies made.
No clue. Very few homeowners and tenants know how their ducts or furnace look from the inside. We added before & after pictures to the reports. We send them emails right after the job is done. This way we show the value of the service to the customers.
Spread the knowledge about ventilation, filtration, and source removal system which impact indoor air quality. So we consult the clients about the work of the system, air improvement, and provide them with information collected carefully in our blog.
Quality customer service. With the most empathy for the client and his problems, our team members do their best to help. Because we know how unpleasant some phone calls might be.
How we started
Most of the new homeowners or tenants don’t check vents and ducts before moving in. Cause that’s just not what matters the most. One day it will. I can say it because my family faced exactly the problem and the lesson I have learned made me a CEO.
Green Air Care company was founded in March 2015. 4 months later I became a father. As the family grew bigger we moved to our new apartment. There I cleaned the ventilation system myself and was sure there was no harm left in the air to my family. 2 years later in 2017 my son was diagnosed with asthma and my wife got thyroid problems. She asked me to re-inspect the system as a “why not measure”. The HVAC unit was managed by the landlord, so I didn’t have access to it. Once the unit was open I found massive mold growth on the blower motor parts, fiberglass, and blades were covered with black spores. Just imagine the odor inside the system!
It’s common to have a washer and dryer, laundry detergents, and chemicals located in the storage room. I found a leakage from the washer so that the moisture and the dust from the filter created a perfect environment for mold growth. Mold is highly hazardous — it breaks your immune system and can cause asthma. We all tried at least once to kill it with chemical sprays but spores keep coming back.
With the time asthma was gone. We still do not directly connect mold and asthma, but consider it one of the triggers. Since then, we added blower motor and cooling coils inspection to the standards of our service. Usually, just HVAC cleaning and installation companies provide these two check-ups, but Green Ductors do it because we feel responsible for the health of our clients.
