Furnace Filters And Air Conditioner Filters

Do you or your loved ones suffer from allergies? Would you like to reduce home heating and air conditioning costs? Simply upgrading the air filter in your heating or cooling system can make a huge difference in both of these areas.

Some Scary Facts About Indoor Pollution

- According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. That is a crazy bit of information.

- The average person breathes in about 32,000 pts. (18,185 litres) of air each day. Those 32,000 pints contain approximately 1,120,000,000 particles of dust. Most of these particles are 3 microns or smaller in size and you usually don't even see them.

There are many things that effect indoor air quality and efficient air conditioner filters and furnace filters are your primary defense against these indoor air quality problems.

Why Using An Inefficient Filter Can Cost You

Inefficient air filters are primarily of the fiberglass panel type and many of the pleated panel filters are not very efficient either. These filters do nothing to help with allergies or protect your heating or cooling equipment.

Air filters that are not very efficient allow too many allergens and dust pass through and return to your home. This results in allergy problems and a lot of dust settling on furniture and appliances throughout your home.

There is another problem that many people are not aware of. The dust that is not caught in the filter also builds up on cooling coils of your air conditioning equipment.

One more way that the equipment is robbed of its operating efficiency.
As operating efficiency begins to drop off the equipment has to operate longer to reach or maintain its set point. Longer run times results in faster equipment wear and higher operating costs.

Using A Very Efficient Filter Can Cost You Also

As air filters become plugged with dust they begin to have a negative impact on air flow through your furnace or air conditioner. As the air flow begins to be reduced the operating efficiency of the equipment is also reduced.

Changing or cleaning your efficient air filter is as important as maintaining an inefficient filter because they do their job well. Here's why...

All heating and cooling equipment is designed for a certain amount of air flow and when this air flow in reduced it impacts the design characteristics of the equipment. For example a 13 SEER air conditioner with a dirty filter may suddenly operate with the

A simple rule of thumb for furnace filters is - Don't Use It If You Can See Through It.

This doesn't mean that you should not be able to see some light through the filter, it means that if you can put your hand on the other site of the filter and see it, then the filter is almost useless for dust control. Guaranteed useless if you have allergies.