If your air filter is only changed during semi-annual HVAC visits, you need to learn more about the benefits of keeping up with this routine task. Regular HVAC air filter changes can directly impact your family’s health and comfort, your yearly energy bills and the longevity of your heating and cooling equipment. Here’s how:
Better Indoor Air Quality
Operating your HVAC system with a dirty filter can let unhealthy contaminants and allergens collect in your ductwork and circulate throughout your home’s air supply. When this happens, your indoor air quality quickly declines.
Breathing in dirty air on a daily basis can result in several health repercussions, but it’s especially harmful for those with breathing difficulties, asthma or allergies. To get rid of any accumulation and clean up your air supply, you’ll need to schedule professional duct cleaning.
Greater Energy Efficiency
Your air filter is what keeps dust and dirt particles out of your HVAC system. If it’s plugged up, debris can infiltrate your system and settle on key components. As dirt builds up, it has an insulating effect that impedes essential heat transfer.
This reduces your equipment’s efficiency, which increases energy consumption and how much you pay in operating costs. To maintain efficiency and keep energy costs under control, check your filter monthly and replace it when you see any accumulation of dirt.
Longer Equipment Lifespan
As your HVAC filter becomes clogged with dirt, crucial airflow through the system gradually decreases. When your equipment has to operate under these conditions, it’s forced to work harder to meet the thermostat’s temperature setting. This extra strain can cause overheating and lead to equipment breakdowns, or worse, the premature failure of expensive components like your fan motor, A/C compressor and furnace heat exchanger.
When you’re shopping for a replacement filter, be sure to follow your equipment manufacturer’s recommendations. Using a filter that’s rated with too high a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) can also cause harmful airflow restrictions.
To learn more about how regular HVAC air filter can impact your home comfort, contact Paschal Heat, Air & Geothermal in Northwest Arkansas today.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Springdale, Arkansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about air filters and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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