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Because Static Pressure affects the performance of a heating and cooling system it can easily be compared to Cholesterol because of the way it affects the performance of a heart.

Static pressure is used to measure the resistance in a duct system created by a filter, return duct and grill, evaporator coil and the supply duct and registers. The furnace fan must overcome this resistance for it to push the airflow requirements of a heating and cooling system.

Total blood cholesterol is a measurement of the amount of cholesterol stuck to the walls of blood vessels creating resistance for the heart. Cholesterol plays a major role in a person's heart health. High blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke. That's why it's important for all everybody to test for their cholesterol level.

Static Pressure plays a major role in how well a heating and cooling system performs. When there’s more resistance (high static pressure), airflow from the fan plummets like a rock and so does the rated Btu’s and efficiency of a heating and cooling system. In fact, high static pressure can easily turn a 94% AFUE furnace into a 50% AFUE and a 13 SEER cooling system into a 7 SEER system. That’s why it’s important to test the duct system for static pressure.

To lower cholesterol, doctors normally recommend diet, exercise and some sort of daily medication.

To lower static pressure, a properly trained, conscientious and competent contractor will evaluated the duct system and its components (filter, return duct and grill, evaporator coil and the supply duct and registers) to see what needs to be done to get the static pressure at the design level of the heating and cooling system.

Beware of the contractor who wants to install a bigger unit to overcome high static pressures in a duct system.  In reality, a larger unit only adds more static pressure.  The only solution is to fix the problems within the duct system.

If you’re thinking about buying a new heating and cooling system, and you want all of the rated Btu’s and efficiency of the heating and cooling system you bought and paid for, you owe it to yourself to have your duct system tested!

Contact the air experts at Nevada Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing. Ask our Tech, request a service or offer feedback, please.