Ensuring that you are changing the air filters in your HVAC system is an essential practice that will help to ensure clean air circulates throughout your home. You can already hear it, your HVAC tech informing you when you should change your air filter, but you can’t remember the exact number of days, is it 30? Or 90? Or only when you start hearing weird noises? However, this article will delve into the topic of how often you should change your HVAC filter. At Davis AC we offer a number of services which include changing your HVAC filter as well as air conditioning services and maintenance.
What is an air filter?
Air filters are typically made from spun fiberglass, pleated paper, and or framed with cardboard which helps with stability and rigidity. Air filters are essentially barriers to prevent contaminants from entering your HVAC system or prevent contaminants from circulating within the air. Most filters have been designed to block out dust, dirt, pet hair, bacteria, mold, and many others. Therefore air filters trap and collect large and small particles of dust, allergens, and microorganisms this is able to provide a better, healthier indoor air quality.
How often should you change out your air filter?
Generally, most air filter manufacturers recommend changing your air filter every 90 days or 3 months. This does vary based on where your home is located. Therefore you may need to change your air filter more frequently if you live in a more dusty or dry climate, or if you have pets, another contributing factor will be the age of your equipment, therefore affecting the longevity of the air filter.
If you have pets in your home we recommend changing your filter every 60 days and for homes that have a number of pets we recommend more regular filter changing from as often as every 20 to 45 days.
If you have a vacation home, however, they don’t get as much daily use therefore changing these filters can be done roughly around every 9 to 12 months. Therefore the rule of thumb is that the more you use your home, the more often you will need to change your air filter.
What if you forget to replace your air filter as often as recommended?
Air filters are often commonly thought to purify the air that you breathe, however, they rather act as a protective to protect the sensitive components of your HVAC system. Therefore it is important to keep in mind that there are high-efficiency filters that are designed to filter out small bacteria, mold, and fungal particles but the standard filters will only be able to block out the larger particles of dust, dirt, and hair.
Filters are not able to filter the air forever or for an indefinite amount of time. Eventually, the filters will fill up with dust and dirt, therefore depending on the system will you need to change your filter or clean it. Paper filters are disposable, with cardboard frames and a paper screen whereas studier filters are reusable and usually have metal frames that can be cleaned in line with the manufacturer’s guidelines.
If you do not change your filter it will begin to fail and no longer to able to filter the air properly, therefore letting dust and contaminants get into the HVAC system. Dust will result in jamming the moving parts of your AC and therefore will result in your fan motors and valves not turning and working efficiently. Airflow will then become restricted which then will result in straining the system and cause the HVAC system to draw more power to be able to overcome the obstacle, this can result in the eventual breakdown of your system, which is not recommended.
Why Changing your filter is important:
Air filters trap pet hair, dust, and other particles so that the air conditioning system delivers fresh, clean air back into your home and eventually the filter will trap so many contaminants that it won’t be able to properly filter the air or allow the air to travel through the HVAC unit which will lead to; high energy bills, health concerns, and system failure.
We recommend that you regularly change your air filter in order to ensure it remains to operate efficiently and effectively.
Photo by Rachel Claire: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bed-with-pillows-in-light-room-4992451/
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