Comfort is one thing homeowners don’t joke- they want to feel at home immediately they step through the door. Such comfort, however, shouldn’t come at a humongous cost, especially in the form of inflated utility bills. One of the best approaches to attaining premium homeliness yet at an affordable cost is to kit your HVAC system with a capable air filter.
The air filter you get here must be appropriate for the conditions you want it to operate at. That is, the MERV rating of your air filter should be high enough for the surrounding it is running in.
Which rating is more appropriate for air filtration in your home?
An air filter with a MERV rating less than 4 wouldn’t do much when tasked with air filtration. An air filter with a MERV rating of 5-8 is most suitable to your home for air purification. Compared to filters with MERV ratings lesser than 4, we see that this category of filters (5-8 MERV rating) are more efficient at trapping those salient particles that would easily escape other filters and even plague you with allergies.
Moving upwards, an air filter with a MERV rating of 9-12 would be a splendid acquisition for your home if you particularly have a stack of pets at home or you are suffering from severe allergies.
This category of air filters, which are the preferred filters supplied by many air filter subscription services, is very impressive at improving the breathability of your interior air. Often in this category of air filters, you could require boosting the blower motor with an HVAC contactor. This provides a counteracting effect against air restriction triggered by this kind of filters.
If you are using an air filter with a MERV rating of 1-8, then your air subscription service would replace it for every 30 days or more commonly every 90 days.
Bringing in the pet factor
If you are staying alone or you are living in a vacation home, it would be beneficial if you change your filter at most every six months – ideally every three months. However, if you have a pet living with you, say a dog, it is advisable to get the filter changed every two months at most because of the possible proliferation of pet dander.
Two cats or dogs staying with you will reduce the replacement interval to just 30 days. This is prevalent if you are naturally susceptible to airborne allergies.
Your surrounding also matters
Your environment also matters a lot as to the periodicity at which you change your filter. You wouldn’t expect someone staying in an environment more exposed to industrial pollution to be changing his filters lesser than someone residing in a greener environment.
In the absence of air filter subscription services, it becomes necessary to devise means to remind yourself of the due time to change your filter. This can be quite demanding as it could involve a hefty load of documentation from you.
You can be reminding yourself when your filter is due for change by scribbling on the filter’s edge. Other homeowners resort to signing up for email alerts from their HVAC contractor or preferably setting reminders on your mobile devices.
This is not easy to as procrastinating a due replacement can be profoundly detrimental. This is considering the poor quality of air you would be stuffing in your nostrils.
