How To Service A High Efficiency Furnace Filter

Home furnace air filter replacement - Thomas & Galbraith Heating, Cooling, & Plumbing

Cincinnati homes require regular upkeep and maintenance throughout the year. Changing furnace filters is one critical task that is often skipped – to the detriment of your comfort and the performance of your dwelling's heating and cooling equipment! With a dirty filter in place, you lot take chances compromising your condolement, energy costs, and HVAC system

Thomas & Galbraith'southward NATE-certified heating and cooling professionals share why changing furnace filters must be done. Learn the true purpose of this organization component, how often irresolute furnace filters needs to be performed, and the issues that arise when you skip this task.

From heating and cooling system maintenance that ensures a clean filter to HVAC repair that counteracts the issues acquired past a dirty one, nosotros provide the services you need for a comfortable home year-round. Call Thomas & Galbraith today to schedule service.

What Does a Furnace Filter Do?

Your furnace filter traps airborne contaminants to clean your air, correct? While yes, information technology does exercise that, that's not exactly its job – despite what most people believe.

The primary function of a furnace filter is to trap airborne contaminants not for air quality purposes, just to go along them out of your heating and cooling system. Yet, considering the filter removes contaminants for the system'due south do good, air quality too benefits from their removal.

How Often Is Changing Furnace Filters Necessary?

Changing furnace filters is a chore that's frequency varies from one house to the adjacent. How often this task needs to be performed is greatly dependent on the type of furnace filter in identify. If yous accept a acme down the filter replacement aisle at your favorite hardware shop, y'all'll run across there are a lot of options to choose from – lots of unlike filter types to impact changing frequency.

Irresolute furnace filters needs to be completed every month to every year – only similar in that location is a dandy range of filters, in that location's a pretty wide range to how often they need to be replaced. Luckily, changing furnace filters doesn't depend on a approximate. The filter's manufacturer provides the recommended replacement frequency within the product information that's included when you buy a new filter.

To requite y'all a starting betoken for what frequency y'all're looking at for irresolute furnace filters, size matters. Thicker filters take more media available to capture contaminants, so a five-inch filter requires less frequent changes than a 1-inch filter. Filter efficiency besides has an impact – this is expressed as MERV, which stands for minimum efficiency reporting value .

In general, this is how oftentimes changing furnace filters needs to be done:

For 1- to 2-inch filters, replace them every 1 to 3 months
For 3- to four-inch filters, replace them every six to nine months
For five- to 6-inch filters, supersede them every ix to 12 months

More Factors that Bear upon Frequency of Changing Furnace Filters

As we mentioned, size and efficiency are ii attributes that affect the frequency changing furnace filters is performed. In addition, in that location are various factors specific to your Cincinnati surface area household that have a greater affect on how often you really demand a new filter.

Home Occupancy

The number of people living in a home affects the useful service life of a furnace filter. In a large household, changing furnace filters is done on a more frequent basis than homes with just one or 2 occupants. People introduce many contaminants to the dwelling environment, and so the more people at that place are in your home, the more contaminants in that location are for the filter to catch.

Hirsuite Family Members

Pets are another major contributor of contaminants into the indoor air supply. Pets shed fur and dander, which are picked up by airflow and circulated throughout the home by the HVAC organisation. For every furry family member living in your dwelling house, a filter'southward useful service life is reduced by approximately 30 days, so you're changing furnace filters more frequently.

Indoor Air Quality

If you accept air quality issues present in the domicile, your furnace filter isn't going to concluding as long as it does in a abode with practiced indoor air quality. Indoor air quality equipment like air purifiers and air cleaners reduce contaminant volume so there's fewer particles for your furnace filter to capture – in homes without this equipment, the furnace filter is the only line of defense against airborne contaminants, so the filter fills up faster.

Allergies

If members of your household suffer from allergies or asthma, changing furnace filters should be done on a more frequent footing. Doing so helps ensure contaminants that crusade symptoms are removed from your indoor air supply.

Heating & Cooling Usage

When your home's heating and cooling equipment is heavily operated, filters accept a shorter useful service life – air is circulated more than frequently, so the filter has more opportunities to pick upwardly contaminants and become clogged. In the summertime and winter, homeowners are typically changing furnace filters more often than they are in the fall and spring.

Dirty Furnace Filter Disasters

When changing furnace filters is forgotten or skipped, various problems arise in Cincinnati households. Dirty furnace filters spell disaster for heating and cooling equipment, home comfort, and indoor air quality.

HVAC System Damage

Heating and cooling equipment similar furnaces and air handlers are filled with many delicate components. Without filtration, airborne dust, dirt, and other debris enters the various chambers of the unit and settles on its components. Contaminants accumulate and worsen the performance of the equipment, fifty-fifty causing impairment to components.
When filters are clogged but the HVAC organization continues to run, air doesn't move through the arrangement properly. With the dirty filter blocking its path, heating and cooling equipment expends more energy to push air along. This extra work stresses the system's components, using more than energy and dissentious equipment.
Airflow blockage caused by a dirty filter raises the temperature within the HVAC equipment, causing information technology to overheat. After it cools, information technology starts back up again, only the problem persists – this is an issue known every bit short-cycling, and dirty filters are the virtually mutual cause. Brusque-cycling leads to HVAC system damage that requires repair and early on total system failures, in addition to excess energy consumption, higher utility bills, and macerated indoor comfort.
As contaminants flow through the HVAC system due to a dirty filter, they collect inside the condensate drainage components and clogs form. Clogs stop condensate from draining out of the home, and it may spill over which results in water damage to HVAC equipment and nearby areas. Plus, backlog condensation increases indoor humidity levels which disrupts comfort.

Poor Condolement & Air Quality

Considering airflow is restricted when irresolute furnace filters is forgotten, living areas do not receive the proper amount of heating and cooling. It becomes hard to maintain comfort levels and homeowners oftentimes notice hot and cold spots.
When the filter is covered in contaminants, there is no more surface area left to trap new contaminants passing through. Therefore, those contaminants remain in the air supply and move back into your home where they crusade allergy symptoms, respiratory bug, bodily irritations, and dirtier surfaces no matter how oftentimes you clean!

Never Forget Another Filter Change!

Changing furnace filters is then very of import, not just for your HVAC system merely for your household. It'southward all likewise easy to skip a filter change when your HVAC equipment is tucked away out of sight, simply this important task must be made a priority.

It's smart to cheque your filter monthly to assess its status. Sometimes, your organization may crave changing furnace filters early, but information technology'southward difficult to tell if you never look for yourself! Take a peek at the filter once a month and replace information technology when yous observe its surface media is completely covered in contaminants.

Because changing furnace filters is and so important, hither are a few strategies to assistance ensure y'all remember to perform this essential home maintenance chore.

Mark monthly filter checks also as changes at the appropriate interval on your wall calendar or within your solar day planner.

If you prefer your smartphone's calendar app, schedule reminders with an warning that sounds to grab your attending.

Link checking and changing furnace filters with other of import tasks yous complete each month. As the filter's condition tin can impact how much energy the system consumes, cheque information technology when you pay your monthly utility bill! Do non file that bill abroad until you check or change your filter.

Thomas & Galbraith Delivers the Care Your HVAC Organization Needs

Irresolute furnace filters on a regular basis has great impacts on home comfort and indoor air quality, also every bit the performance, energy efficiency, and longevity of your HVAC system. Ensure your comfort system receives the professional care it needs – maintenance tune ups remove debris and takes care of filter changes. If the harm of a dingy filter has already been done, our skilled technicians piece of work to counteract the issue to restore functioning.

Call Thomas & Galbraith today to schedule heating and cooling services, including HVAC repair and heating and cooling tune ups.