How To Replace 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 job that is often skipped – to the detriment of your comfort and the performance of your domicile'southward heating and cooling equipment! With a muddied filter in place, you risk compromising your comfort, free energy costs, and HVAC organisation

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

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

What Does a Furnace Filter Exercise?

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

The principal function of a furnace filter is to trap airborne contaminants not for air quality purposes, only to keep them out of your heating and cooling system. Withal, because the filter removes contaminants for the system'southward benefit, air quality also benefits from their removal.

How Oftentimes Is Changing Furnace Filters Necessary?

Changing furnace filters is a job that's frequency varies from one house to the next. How often this task needs to exist performed is greatly dependent on the type of furnace filter in identify. If you have a peak downward the filter replacement aisle at your favorite hardware store, you'll see at that place are a lot of options to choose from – lots of different filter types to affect changing frequency.

Changing furnace filters needs to be completed every month to every twelvemonth – just like there is a nifty range of filters, in that location'due south a pretty wide range to how frequently they need to be replaced. Luckily, changing furnace filters doesn't depend on a guess. The filter'southward manufacturer provides the recommended replacement frequency within the product information that'south included when you buy a new filter.

To requite you a starting point for what frequency you're looking at for changing furnace filters, size matters. Thicker filters have more media available to capture contaminants, so a v-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 oft changing furnace filters needs to be done:

For 1- to 2-inch filters, replace them every 1 to 3 months
For 3- to 4-inch filters, supercede them every 6 to ix months
For five- to half dozen-inch filters, supervene upon them every 9 to 12 months

More Factors that Affect Frequency of Changing Furnace Filters

Equally we mentioned, size and efficiency are ii attributes that affect the frequency changing furnace filters is performed. In addition, there are various factors specific to your Cincinnati expanse household that accept a greater impact on how often you really need a new filter.

Dwelling house Occupancy

The number of people living in a dwelling house 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 simply ane or two occupants. People introduce many contaminants to the domicile environment, so the more people there are in your home, the more contaminants there are for the filter to take hold of.

Furry 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 arrangement. For every furry family unit member living in your habitation, a filter's useful service life is reduced by approximately 30 days, so you're irresolute furnace filters more often.

Indoor Air Quality

If you have air quality issues present in the home, your furnace filter isn't going to last as long as it does in a home with good indoor air quality. Indoor air quality equipment like air purifiers and air cleaners reduce contaminant volume then at that place's fewer particles for your furnace filter to capture – in homes without this equipment, the furnace filter is the only line of defence force confronting airborne contaminants, so the filter fills up faster.

Allergies

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

Heating & Cooling Usage

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

Muddy Furnace Filter Disasters

When irresolute furnace filters is forgotten or skipped, various issues ascend 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 like 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 accrue and worsen the performance of the equipment, even causing damage to components.
When filters are clogged but the HVAC system continues to run, air doesn't move through the arrangement properly. With the dirty filter blocking its path, heating and cooling equipment expends more free energy to push air along. This extra work stresses the arrangement's components, using more energy and damaging equipment.
Airflow blockage caused by a muddied filter raises the temperature within the HVAC equipment, causing it to overheat. Afterwards it cools, it starts back up again, only the trouble persists – this is an issue known as curt-cycling, and dingy filters are the most common crusade. Curt-cycling leads to HVAC system damage that requires repair and early total organisation failures, in improver to excess energy consumption, higher utility bills, and diminished indoor comfort.
As contaminants flow through the HVAC organization due to a muddied filter, they collect within the condensate drainage components and clogs form. Clogs end condensate from draining out of the abode, and information technology may spill over which results in water damage to HVAC equipment and nearby areas. Plus, excess condensation increases indoor humidity levels which disrupts comfort.

Poor Comfort & Air Quality

Because airflow is restricted when irresolute furnace filters is forgotten, living areas do non receive the proper corporeality of heating and cooling. It becomes difficult to maintain comfort levels and homeowners often find 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 cause allergy symptoms, respiratory issues, bodily irritations, and dirtier surfaces no thing how frequently you lot clean!

Never Forget Another Filter Change!

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

Information technology's smart to cheque your filter monthly to assess its status. Sometimes, your system may require changing furnace filters early, but information technology'south difficult to tell if you lot never look for yourself! Accept a peek at the filter once a month and replace information technology when you lot notice its surface media is completely covered in contaminants.

Because changing furnace filters is so important, here are a few strategies to assist ensure yous recall to perform this essential home maintenance task.

Mark monthly filter checks as well as changes at the appropriate interval on your wall agenda or inside your day planner.

If you prefer your smartphone's calendar app, schedule reminders with an alarm that sounds to catch your attention.

Link checking and irresolute furnace filters with other important tasks you consummate each month. As the filter'due south condition tin impact how much energy the system consumes, check information technology when you pay your monthly utility bill! Do not file that pecker away until you check or change your filter.

Thomas & Galbraith Delivers the Care Your HVAC System Needs

Changing furnace filters on a regular ground has not bad impacts on abode comfort and indoor air quality, as well equally the performance, free energy efficiency, and longevity of your HVAC organization. Ensure your comfort organisation receives the professional intendance it needs – maintenance tune ups remove debris and takes care of filter changes. If the damage of a dirty filter has already been done, our skilled technicians work to counteract the issue to restore performance.

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