The average person breathes in about 32,000 pints of air everyday. That air contains over 1 billion particles of dust, most of which are particles less than 3 microns or smaller in size. For comparison purposes the average size of a human hair is 75 microns in size. It is a good idea to regularly maintain the air filter that removes many of these particles from your household air.
In your home the air filter in your forced air heating system is the primary method of removing these millions of particles of dust and other particles from your household air. Most people only think of air filter maintenance during the heating season, but it is a simple but very important task as we enter the summer and long term air conditioning usage.
There are many varieties of air filters to choose from, which are rated on what is know as a MERV rating – the ability of a air filter to filter out particles from the air. The higher the MERV rating the greater the ability to filter out smaller particles from the air stream. Low end disposable filters – the ones that sell for 99 cents or so have a MERV rating of 1. These cheaper filters do not do a very good job of air filtration. Pleated filters, which have an estimated life of 3 months, have a rating of 6 to 8 perform at a much higher level of efficiency.
I replaced my filter the other days after 3 months of use and it was looking pretty gray – literally. When air filters are clogged, air flow is restricted and the unit starves for air and hence performs inefficiently. This will end up costing you more $$$ as the system is not operating at peak efficiency.I replaced it with a nice new white pleated filter which cost $7.99 and had a MERV rating of 7. I put the date on the side of the filter so I will remember when to change it in the future.
Installation of a filter is one of the simplest home maintenance tasks. The filter slides right out of it’s slot adjacent to the heater in the return air duct. The most difficult part of filter replacement is to make sure that the arrow on the filter points in the same direction as the air flow into the HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) unit, and that you purchase the correct size filter for you unit.
So do you lungs a favor and keep your HVAC unit running efficiently as the summer cooling season gets underway.
