Regularly Changing Your Air Filter Helps Your HVAC System: Learn How

The air filter in your HVAC system is one of the most important parts. There are many reasons changing your air filter is important, both for your system and your health.

Reasons Behind Changing Your Air Filter

One of the main reasons you need to stay on top of your air filter is for your indoor air quality. Your filter does its best to remove contaminants that can cause you breathing issues like dust, mold spores and more. As a mechanical filter gets clogged, it’s unable to remove as many contaminants, thereby lowering the quality of air your breathe.

There are two primary issues related to your system’s performance. As a filter gets more clogged, there’s less room for air to squeeze through. In order to keep the airflow at a sufficient level, your blower motor starts working harder, which raises the pressure of the air leading up to the filter. This adds stress to your blower, leading to less efficient performance and can potentially lead to an expensive breakdown.

Performing Filter Maintenance

The good news is that all those consequences can be avoided by doing some simple maintenance. Inspect your filter at least once a month and lift it up to a light source. When you start to have trouble seeing through to the other side, it’s time to replace it. The typical filter needs to be replaced every one to three months, but this will depend on many factors and may vary during different parts of the year.

Before you go out and stock up on replacement filters, make sure they are the right size for your system. If your filter doesn’t fit it will lead to poor filtering and many other problems. Find out the right size of a filter from your owner’s manual.

While changing your air filter is a simple task in most cases, it’s important to do it right. If you need help with HVAC maintenance in your Orlando home, contact Rinaldi’s Air Conditioning.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Orlando, Florida and surrounding areas 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.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock