Spring Into Efficiency: Why Your HVAC Filter Matters
With winter winding down I thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss something that’s on all of our minds: filters…Okay, maybe that’s just something I spend time thinking about. In any event, with the A/C season right around the corner, we’ve been stocking up for our spring maintenances!
Twice a year, in the spring and fall, we venture out to our Current Comfort Club members’ homes to go over their HVAC equipment top to bottom. The goal? To make sure the system is functioning properly and efficiently BEFORE there is an issue. Clearing drain lines, and testing pressures and amperages are the clearest signs of something not functioning properly. Included in this service is a new filter, which brings us back to my original thought.
I’m often asked by customers how often they should be changing their filters. Short answer? There is no short answer, as every home is different. Do you have inside pets? Do you live on a dirt road? Do you open your windows often? How many people live in your home? These, and many other factors come into play when considering the effective lifespan of a filter.
So how do you, the homeowner, know when it’s time for change? Most of the time, color is a good visual indicator. The majority of filters on the market are white when new. Over the course of hours of runtime and the air in your home cycling through it, the bright white media will begin to fade into a brown reminder that it’s time to replace. The ugly brown truth? This color change is actually dust, pollen, pet dander, and even skin cells getting trapped in your filter media before they make their way onto your evaporator coil. While the color change is a good visual indication, you have to remember to go look for it. But everyone is busy and that gets forgotten, opening the door for that simple dirty filter to cause many deeper issues within your unit. Most importantly, what gets through to the coil… this buildup restricts airflow. Imagine jogging down the street while breathing through a straw. How far would you make it? HVAC equipment operates much like our bodies in that a system that can breathe is a happily functioning system. Systems that are forced to operate with restricted airflow can be plagued with costly mechanical failures, they are inefficient, and do not last as long, overall.
This is where a seasonal maintenance comes into play. The filter gets changed for you, as well as the unit inspection to make sure everything is running to spec, BEFORE running it at full capacity in the hottest of summer and the coldest of winter because that is NOT when you want to have issues. Not that it can’t happen, but at least you will know you did your part to prevent it.
So, we’ve covered why you should inspect your unit and change your filters when needed, but what filter do you choose? Size is the easy part, but what about MERV ratings? Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value is the industry standard rating to designate a filter’s performance. I’ve always recommended a minimum value of MERV 8. This is a great all-around filter that can be purchased at a relatively low cost. At a higher cost per unit, but respectively higher performance, a MERV 13 rating in some cases can remove up to 95% of airborne particulates. This is worth the extra cost to some. However, caution should be used when purchasing higher efficiency filters on aging systems (12+ years old), as the added airflow restriction that comes with the higher MERV rating can cause issues with older coils that may already have restrictions from years of use. If in doubt give, us a call. We are more than happy to come out to your home and perform a seasonal maintenance and/or recommend the best filter for your individual equipment. Happy Spring from all of us at Current HVAC and Electrical!
