How Often Do You Need To Change Your Furnace Filter

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

Cincinnati homes crave regular upkeep and maintenance throughout the year. Changing furnace filters is ane disquisitional task that is oft skipped – to the detriment of your comfort and the performance of your domicile'southward heating and cooling equipment! With a dirty filter in place, you risk compromising your condolement, energy costs, and HVAC system

Thomas & Galbraith's 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 exist performed, and the problems that arise when you skip this task.

From heating and cooling system maintenance that ensures a clean filter to HVAC repair that counteracts the bug caused by a dingy ane, we provide the services you need for a comfy home twelvemonth-round. Call Thomas & Galbraith today to schedule service.

What Does a Furnace Filter Do?

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

The principal function of a furnace filter is to trap airborne contaminants not for air quality purposes, but to go on them out of your heating and cooling arrangement. Nonetheless, because the filter removes contaminants for the organization's benefit, air quality also benefits from their removal.

How Often Is Changing Furnace Filters Necessary?

Changing furnace filters is a job that's frequency varies from i house to the next. How often this task needs to be performed is greatly dependent on the type of furnace filter in identify. If you have a peak downwardly the filter replacement aisle at your favorite hardware shop, yous'll see there are a lot of options to choose from – lots of unlike filter types to touch changing frequency.

Changing furnace filters needs to be completed every month to every twelvemonth – simply like there is a dandy range of filters, at that place's a pretty wide range to how ofttimes they need to exist replaced. Luckily, changing furnace filters doesn't depend on a guess. The filter's manufacturer provides the recommended replacement frequency within the product information that's included when you lot buy a new filter.

To requite you a starting indicate for what frequency yous're looking at for irresolute furnace filters, size matters. Thicker filters have more media available to capture contaminants, so a 5-inch filter requires less frequent changes than a 1-inch filter. Filter efficiency as well has an bear upon – this is expressed as MERV, which stands for minimum efficiency reporting value .

In general, this is how often changing furnace filters needs to exist washed:

For 1- to 2-inch filters, supervene upon them every 1 to 3 months
For 3- to 4-inch filters, replace them every half dozen to ix months
For 5- to 6-inch filters, replace them every 9 to 12 months

More Factors that Affect Frequency of Changing Furnace Filters

Equally we mentioned, size and efficiency are two attributes that affect the frequency changing furnace filters is performed. In addition, there are various factors specific to your Cincinnati area household that take a greater impact on how often you really need 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 washed on a more than frequent footing than homes with only one or ii occupants. People introduce many contaminants to the home environment, so the more people there are in your home, the more than contaminants at that place are for the filter to catch.

Furry Family Members

Pets are some other major contributor of contaminants into the indoor air supply. Pets shed fur and dander, which are picked upwards by airflow and circulated throughout the habitation by the HVAC organization. For every furry family member living in your home, a filter'south useful service life is reduced by approximately 30 days, so you're changing furnace filters more often.

Indoor Air Quality

If y'all have air quality issues present in the home, your furnace filter isn't going to terminal as long equally it does in a home with practiced indoor air quality. Indoor air quality equipment like air purifiers and air cleaners reduce contaminant volume and so there's fewer particles for your furnace filter to capture – in homes without this equipment, the furnace filter is the only line of defence against airborne contaminants, and then 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 basis. Doing so helps ensure contaminants that cause symptoms are removed from your indoor air supply.

Heating & Cooling Usage

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

Dingy Furnace Filter Disasters

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

HVAC Arrangement Harm

Heating and cooling equipment like furnaces and air handlers are filled with many fragile components. Without filtration, airborne dust, dirt, and other debris enters the diverse chambers of the unit and settles on its components. Contaminants accrue and worsen the functioning of the equipment, even causing impairment to components.
When filters are clogged merely the HVAC system continues to run, air doesn't motility through the system properly. With the dingy filter blocking its path, heating and cooling equipment expends more energy to push air along. This extra work stresses the system'south components, using more energy and damaging equipment.
Airflow blockage caused by a muddy filter raises the temperature within the HVAC equipment, causing information technology to overheat. Later it cools, it starts back up again, but the problem persists – this is an issue known as short-cycling, and dirty filters are the well-nigh mutual cause. Curt-cycling leads to HVAC system damage that requires repair and early on total system failures, in addition to backlog free energy consumption, higher utility bills, and diminished indoor comfort.
Equally contaminants menstruum through the HVAC organization due to a dirty filter, they collect within the condensate drainage components and clogs course. Clogs finish condensate from draining out of the home, and it may spill over which results in h2o harm to HVAC equipment and nearby areas. Plus, excess condensation increases indoor humidity levels which disrupts condolement.

Poor Condolement & Air Quality

Because airflow is restricted when changing furnace filters is forgotten, living areas do not receive the proper corporeality of heating and cooling. It becomes hard to maintain condolement levels and homeowners often notice hot and cold spots.
When the filter is covered in contaminants, there is no more than surface area left to trap new contaminants passing through. Therefore, those contaminants remain in the air supply and movement dorsum into your home where they crusade allergy symptoms, respiratory issues, bodily irritations, and dirtier surfaces no thing how frequently you clean!

Never Forget Some other Filter Change!

Changing furnace filters is so very important, non only for your HVAC system only for your household. It's all too easy to skip a filter change when your HVAC equipment is tucked away out of sight, but this of import chore must be made a priority.

It'due south smart to check your filter monthly to assess its status. Sometimes, your system may require changing furnace filters early, but it'southward difficult to tell if you never await for yourself! Accept a peek at the filter in one case a month and replace it when yous detect its surface media is completely covered in contaminants.

Because irresolute furnace filters is and then important, here are a few strategies to help ensure you lot remember to perform this essential dwelling house maintenance task.

Mark monthly filter checks as well equally changes at the advisable interval on your wall calendar or within your day planner.

If you prefer your smartphone'southward agenda app, schedule reminders with an alarm that sounds to take hold of your attention.

Link checking and changing furnace filters with other important tasks you complete each month. Every bit the filter's status can impact how much energy the system consumes, check it when you pay your monthly utility bill! Do not file that bill abroad until yous cheque or alter your filter.

Thomas & Galbraith Delivers the Care Your HVAC Organisation Needs

Changing furnace filters on a regular ground has bully impacts on home comfort and indoor air quality, equally well as the performance, energy efficiency, and longevity of your HVAC arrangement. Ensure your comfort system receives the professional person care it needs – maintenance melody ups remove droppings and takes care of filter changes. If the damage of a dingy filter has already been washed, our skilled technicians work to annul the issue to restore operation.

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