A lot of the time we spend is inside
our homes and regardless of which season it is, you will always want the air
circulating through your home to be of the highest quality. To ensure that you
may invest in an innovative, effective and sophisticated HVAC system capable of
conditioning air to maximum comfort. That said, over time the air quality in
your home degrades by a large margin. This mainly due to proper AC
maintenance & repair, primarily in the air filter category. With
time, your air filters start to accumulate a significant amount of dirt and
become ineffective at removing the dirt, dust, and pollen from the air. Central air conditioner filter maintenance and
cleaning fall to negligence very often is the reason why your family suffers
through episodes of allergic reactions and infrequent sneezing. Therefore,
follow the following tips to determine when, why and how you should be dealing
with your HVAC system’s air filters.
Why should you change the air filters in your HVAC system?
The HVAC system in your home, namely
the central
ac unit, deals with a lot of air contaminated with several different
types of impurities. These include microorganisms and bacteria, animal fur and
hair, pollen, dirt, dust and most importantly mold spores. These then circulate
through your home and cause numerous allergic reactions.
If the air circulating through your
home is indeed mold-ridden, you will need to get on to quickly cleaning up your
air filters if you want to stay free of mold-inspired diseases and allergic
reactions. In the event that a simple air filter cleaning process is not enough
to rid your home of molds, and you have ended up with molds in the duct, it is
time to call in AC Repair services to come in and perform some thorough mold removal from your air ducts.
If your air filter is dirty to the
point that is clogged with small debris, your HVAC system will not only supply your home
with poor air, it will also operate inefficiently. Due to the clogging, your
HVAC system will have a harder time moving air through the air vents, and
therefore, it will have to work much harder to get the same amount of heating and cooling your home as it
previously has. This is highly undesirable, as you have paid a gracious amount
of money to buy the latest and greatest in heating and air conditioning technology. Therefore,
to avoid letting your Trane system, for example, use an excessive
amount of electricity and rack up on energy bills, you should get to hiring
appropriate AC repair & maintenance crews to come over and clean your air
filters thoroughly. You might even want to take it upon yourself if the air
filters are not too dirty. However, getting them cleaned as soon as possible is
a necessity.
Molds in duct – a result of poor air filter care
The most basic sign that you need to
change your filters is when they are visibly dirty. However, do not let that be
the sole indicator, as your air ducts might be getting too without you noticing
it. Therefore, check your air filters frequently to make sure that they are
clean and are not exposing your air ducts to external elements like molds. If
your air ducts are exposed to molds, there is a high chance that you will end
up with molds in duct.
Therefore, it is important that you are diligent in your efforts of checking
and ensuring that your air filters are properly clean. If you do end up with
molds, you might need duct
replacement soon too.
How often should you change the air filters in the HVAC system of your
home?
The best times to check your air
filters for dirt accumulation is often during peak operating times, namely
during summer and winter, as this is when your expensive Carrier system, for example, is working hardest to
condition the air running through your system and ensuring that the quality of
air in your home is satisfactorily high. Other factors which affect how often
you should change or clean your air filters include:
-
The type of air filter – most modern HVAC
systems come with several anti-dust and pollen measures built right into their air conditioning units, in these
cases your air filters will not be dealing with the full brunt of the dust your
overall system will have running through it. In this case, you can check your
air filters every couple of weeks to ensure things are in order.
-
The air
quality of the area you are living in – if the quality of air in the area you
are living is poor, your HVAC system will be under a lot of pressure to keep
the air well-conditioned and clean. Therefore, your air filters will become
dirty quicker. As a result, you should be checking your air filters every other
week to ensure that everything is clean and that you will not be dealing with
dust allergies anytime soon.
-
Pets – if you have pets running around in your
home, you will need to check your HVAC system’s filter more often. Pets shed
hair, and the ones that are not stuck in carpets and sofas end up being sucked
up through your HVAC system and often find themselves in your air filters. If
you are a pet owner, you will need to check your HVAC system’s air filters more
often to ensure that they are clean and free of fur.
-
Allergic residents – if anyone in your family
is allergic to dust, or has a hard time dealing with air quality, you will need
to check the air filters of your HVAC system more frequently to ensure that
they can breathe easily and comfortably.
Once you do spot that your air filters
require cleaning, you might want to hire air
conditioning service & repair experts to come and clean it up good and
proper. In some cases, you might even require extensive air duct cleaning, to rid
of the dust and pollen accumulating in your ductwork.