![]() If you are in a smoking household, filters will collect particulates from this more quickly than in some other homes. If it’s allergy season, or your family includes someone who is immunocompromised, you may want to consider replacing it more often. If you have multiple pets in your home, your filter will clog more quickly. Several factors can (and should) affect how often you change your filter. However, this schedule is just a recommendation, not an inviolable rule. It’s recommended that you stick to this schedule. This could be as little as every 30-60 days, or as long as a year. Moral of the story: change your filter on time.Īny filter will have a recommended replacement schedule on its packaging. So if you just forget about it, you’ll get at least some heating and cooling.īut it will be more costly, less comfortable, and your system will either break down or start to have serious problems years before it would otherwise.Īll because of a filter. The reason this is so insidious is that your system will probably run for months or years with a clogged filter. Making your system work harder and more often means that its lifespan will be significantly reduced over a number of years.Spots of high pressure in your ductwork can cause leaks.Higher energy bills as a result of the longer run times.Longer run times for your furnace or air conditioner.Pockets of hot and cold spots in your home.This creates airflow backups in the system, which in turn makes your system run harder than it would otherwise need to. When a filter becomes packed with detritus, the air won’t move through it easily. It might sound harmless, but it affects the entirety of your HVAC system. But there are a lot of intermediate problems that poor filtration can cause that will ultimately lead to costly repairs or full system replacements. That’s right a worst-case scenario is a complete system shutdown. Our service techs will sometimes have to “repair” a system that has fully shut down, and the only immediate problem is the filter. We touched on a handful of reasons earlier, but I want to talk about some of the long-term effects of neglecting your filter. RELATED: N95 Masks, HEPA Filters & COVID Why Change Your Filter RELATED: Can HVAC Protect Against COVID-19 and Other Illnesses? In fact, recent studies have shown that MERV 13 filters are required to reliably stop certain airborne viruses. ![]() However, as long as airflow is accounted for, higher MERV is indeed usually better. ![]() If they’re too thin, they’re packed too tightly to allow for proper airflow. This is sometimes a problem even with lower MERV-rating filters. The one-inch version will be denser, so it will inhibit airflow. So a one-inch filter that’s MERV 13 is very different from a four-inch filter that’s MERV 13. Higher MERV ratings are generally thought of as “better,” but I put that in quotes because it’s not always true. So a higher MERV Rating, in theory, can help with this. Smaller particles tend to be the most dangerous because it’s easier for them to enter your lungs. The higher your MERV Rating, the more efficient it will be at capturing particles of varying sizes. MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, which is a long-winded way of saying that it’s based on efficiency. To discuss it, we need to talk about MERV Rating. We’re going to talk more about this later, but it’s a central reason to clean or replace your filters in a timely manner.įilter rating can definitely matter, and it’s often what gets the most attention. Design matters, which is why cheaper filters are often cheaper This can reduce the efficacy of a filter significantly, even if you’ve upgraded it. Some filters are designed with a criss-cross pattern of cardboard or other material that limits the surface area of a filter. Your options may include store-bought filters or others that your HVAC partner has available to them through various manufacturers.įilter design is also important. Filter size is something that can be discussed with your HVAC partner.
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