You never see it, you probably forget that it is there, but ductwork serves a very important purpose in your home. It is the ductwork that transports the warm and cool air, helping to bring in climate control to your home. Without ductwork, there would be no way to transport any sort of air, warm or cool, to you.
The problem is that your ductwork can be one of the most difficult things to deal with. It is usually buried in the basement and not easy to access. If your ductwork is the wrong size for your new furnace, missing pieces so that air is escaping, or become so dilapidated that they barely function, you are going to need to replace it and you may need to consider some custom ductwork.
Proper ducts in your home can increase the efficiency of your entire climate control system. For example, you can have the biggest, toughest furnace of any house in the neighbourhood, but if you have ducts that are tiny, you are going to have a lot of inefficiencies. Think about how easy it is to blow air through a large and open straw, and how difficult it is to blow air through a straw that is small and very narrow. You have to work harder just to get the air out, and for the furnace or central air unit, that harder work is costing you more money in terms of your energy bill.
Custom ductwork can ensure your ducts are the right size for your central air system. This will increase the efficiency of your entire unit, and that will save you money. Custom ductwork can take the most economical route to get air to you, and it is not going to cost you a lot of money when you go through the right company.
Many new furnaces require a different size duct than has been used in the past. If you look at old homes, they have huge vents because of how hard the furnace had to work to get warm air throughout the house. That is not the case anymore. Now vents can be much smaller and even hard to notice, but custom ductwork is needed to make that system work.
Speaking of systems, if you are thinking of using a zoning system in your home that will help keep a constant temperature throughout the home, you need custom ductwork to make it work. Ducts need to close automatically when the temperature reaches a certain level, anti-static devices need to be put into place and more. Sometimes, the ducts even need to be widened, to allow for these devices. If that is the case, you will need to get custom ductwork done for your home.
Thankfully, with the right company, you are not going to pay a lot of money for custom ductwork and you will be able to enjoy the new efficiency of your central air system without hurting your wallet.