Dirty walls and Electric Heat

May 24, 2004 2 Replies
J

I have a house with forced air electric heat. Over the course of a year, a sooty residue builds up on the walls and rugs seemingly coming from the floor registers. Could the electric heating elements be burning off and causing the residue? I'm tired of washing walls and cleaning carpets. If I install a propane furnace would the same thing happen? I thought electric heat was clean.



Side note: the ducts all appear to be clean. If I take off a register and stick my hand down a duct, I do not get a sooty finger. They were professional cleaned a few years ago in an attempt to resolve the problem


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M

Do you smoke, do you have a good filter in it, Propane will cost less to heat, gas even more. Id suggest you get a few better pros out , obviously the ones youve had didnt help you identify the source.

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E

The soot is not coming from the heater, but rather it is in the house already. Every house has dust and yours may be exaggerated a bit from some other source. The heated air is just grabbing it and depositing it on the walls. Changing fuels sources will not help, may hurt. The dust is in the air and the velocity of the moving air deposits the reside on the nearest surface, usually right at the registers, when the velocity drops, such as coming out of a vent to an open area.

Smoking, lots of cooking will make the problem more. Burning candles adds lots of soot in the house. Just look at the mound of burning was and how much greasy smoke it gives off.

You need better filtration. If standard filters do not work, look into the electrostatic filters. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net

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