Where Is The Filter On A Gas Furnace

Home furnace air filter replacement - Thomas & Galbraith Heating, Cooling, & Plumbing

Cincinnati homes require regular upkeep and maintenance throughout the year. Changing furnace filters is one disquisitional task that is ofttimes skipped – to the detriment of your comfort and the performance of your home's heating and cooling equipment! With a dirty filter in place, you take chances compromising your comfort, energy costs, and HVAC organisation

Thomas & Galbraith's NATE-certified heating and cooling professionals share why irresolute furnace filters must be done. Learn the true purpose of this system component, how oft irresolute furnace filters needs to be performed, and the issues that arise when you lot skip this task.

From heating and cooling arrangement maintenance that ensures a make clean filter to HVAC repair that counteracts the problems acquired by a muddied one, we provide the services you need for a comfy home twelvemonth-round. Call Thomas & Galbraith today to schedule service.

What Does a Furnace Filter Do?

Your furnace filter traps airborne contaminants to clean your air, right? While aye, information technology does practise that, that'due south not exactly its job – despite what most people believe.

The primary function of a furnace filter is to trap airborne contaminants non for air quality purposes, but to keep them out of your heating and cooling organization. However, considering the filter removes contaminants for the system's benefit, air quality also benefits from their removal.

How Often Is Changing Furnace Filters Necessary?

Irresolute furnace filters is a task that's frequency varies from one house to the side by side. How ofttimes this task needs to exist performed is greatly dependent on the type of furnace filter in place. If you accept a pinnacle downwards the filter replacement aisle at your favorite hardware shop, you lot'll see in that location are a lot of options to choose from – lots of different filter types to impact changing frequency.

Changing furnace filters needs to exist completed every month to every year – just like there is a slap-up range of filters, there's a pretty wide range to how oft they need to be replaced. Luckily, changing furnace filters doesn't depend on a guess. The filter's manufacturer provides the recommended replacement frequency within the product information that's included when you purchase a new filter.

To give you a starting point for what frequency you're looking at for changing furnace filters, size matters. Thicker filters have more than media available to capture contaminants, so a 5-inch filter requires less frequent changes than a 1-inch filter. Filter efficiency likewise has an impact – this is expressed as MERV, which stands for minimum efficiency reporting value .

In general, this is how often changing furnace filters needs to be done:

For ane- to 2-inch filters, replace them every i to 3 months
For 3- to four-inch filters, supervene upon them every six to 9 months
For 5- to 6-inch filters, replace them every 9 to 12 months

More Factors that Affect Frequency of Changing Furnace Filters

As we mentioned, size and efficiency are two attributes that bear on the frequency changing furnace filters is performed. In addition, there are various factors specific to your Cincinnati area household that have a greater touch on on how often you actually need a new filter.

Abode Occupancy

The number of people living in a home affects the useful service life of a furnace filter. In a big household, irresolute furnace filters is done on a more frequent ground than homes with just 1 or two occupants. People introduce many contaminants to the home environment, so the more than people in that location are in your abode, the more contaminants there are for the filter to take hold of.

Furry Family unit Members

Pets are another major contributor of contaminants into the indoor air supply. Pets shed fur and dander, which are picked upwardly by airflow and circulated throughout the dwelling by the HVAC organization. For every furry family unit member living in your home, a filter's useful service life is reduced past approximately xxx days, so you're changing furnace filters more often.

Indoor Air Quality

If yous accept air quality bug present in the home, your furnace filter isn't going to final as long every bit it does in a home with skillful indoor air quality. Indoor air quality equipment like air purifiers and air cleaners reduce contaminant book so there'south fewer particles for your furnace filter to capture – in homes without this equipment, the furnace filter is the only line of defence against airborne contaminants, then the filter fills up faster.

Allergies

If members of your household endure from allergies or asthma, changing furnace filters should be done on a more frequent basis. Doing so helps ensure contaminants that cause symptoms are removed from your indoor air supply.

Heating & Cooling Usage

When your dwelling's heating and cooling equipment is heavily operated, filters have a shorter useful service life – air is circulated more than frequently, so the filter has more than opportunities to pick up contaminants and become clogged. In the summertime and wintertime, homeowners are typically changing furnace filters more often than they are in the fall and spring.

Dingy Furnace Filter Disasters

When changing furnace filters is forgotten or skipped, various problems arise in Cincinnati households. Dirty furnace filters spell disaster for heating and cooling equipment, domicile comfort, and indoor air quality.

HVAC System Harm

Heating and cooling equipment like furnaces and air handlers are filled with many delicate components. Without filtration, airborne grit, dirt, and other debris enters the various chambers of the unit and settles on its components. Contaminants accrue and worsen the performance of the equipment, fifty-fifty causing impairment to components.
When filters are chock-full but the HVAC system continues to run, air doesn't move through the system properly. With the dingy filter blocking its path, heating and cooling equipment expends more energy to push air along. This extra work stresses the system's components, using more energy and damaging equipment.
Airflow blockage caused by a dirty filter raises the temperature within the HVAC equipment, causing it to overheat. After it cools, it starts support again, simply the problem persists – this is an issue known every bit short-cycling, and dirty filters are the most mutual cause. Brusk-cycling leads to HVAC organization damage that requires repair and early total organisation failures, in add-on to excess free energy consumption, higher utility bills, and diminished indoor comfort.
Every bit contaminants menses through the HVAC organisation due to a muddy filter, they collect within the condensate drainage components and clogs form. Clogs stop condensate from draining out of the home, and information technology may spill over which results in h2o harm to HVAC equipment and nearby areas. Plus, backlog condensation increases indoor humidity levels which disrupts condolement.

Poor Comfort & Air Quality

Because airflow is restricted when changing furnace filters is forgotten, living areas practice non receive the proper amount of heating and cooling. It becomes difficult to maintain comfort levels and homeowners often notice hot and common cold spots.
When the filter is covered in contaminants, there is no more area left to trap new contaminants passing through. Therefore, those contaminants remain in the air supply and move back into your abode where they cause allergy symptoms, respiratory bug, bodily irritations, and dirtier surfaces no thing how oft you clean!

Never Forget Another Filter Change!

Changing furnace filters is and so very important, not just for your HVAC system only for your household. It's all too piece of cake to skip a filter change when your HVAC equipment is tucked away out of sight, but this of import task must be made a priority.

It's smart to check your filter monthly to appraise its condition. Sometimes, your organization may require irresolute furnace filters early, but it'southward difficult to tell if yous never look for yourself! Accept a peek at the filter in one case a calendar month and supercede it when you notice its surface media is completely covered in contaminants.

Because changing furnace filters is so important, here are a few strategies to assist ensure yous remember to perform this essential home maintenance task.

Mark monthly filter checks too as changes at the advisable interval on your wall calendar or within your day planner.

If y'all prefer your smartphone'southward agenda app, schedule reminders with an warning that sounds to grab your attention.

Link checking and changing furnace filters with other important tasks y'all complete each month. As the filter's condition can impact how much energy the organization consumes, cheque it when you pay your monthly utility bill! Practise non file that bill away until you lot cheque or modify your filter.

Thomas & Galbraith Delivers the Care Your HVAC System Needs

Irresolute furnace filters on a regular basis has great impacts on home comfort and indoor air quality, as well as the performance, energy efficiency, and longevity of your HVAC system. Ensure your condolement organization receives the professional care it needs – maintenance tune ups remove debris and takes care of filter changes. If the harm of a dirty filter has already been done, our skilled technicians piece of work to counteract the upshot to restore functioning.

Telephone call Thomas & Galbraith today to schedule heating and cooling services, including HVAC repair and heating and cooling tune ups.