With technological advances in furnace air filtration products and filter media composition, an extremely high level of air quality can be achieved in your home by utilizing the right products. Quite often, furnace filters are overlooked as a possible way to improve your home's air quality and even the health of the occupants.
We've all seen the standalone self claimed air purifiers appliances that sit on a counter top or in the corner of a room. Although some of these products can help clean the air in a particular area of your home, they cannot keep up to a whole home worth of air pollutants. They often consume additional energy to operate and require routine upkeep and materials to continue performing as claimed.
The furnace filter has entered the chat... Your furnace circulates air throughout your home while heating/cooling, and in many cases can circulate air 24/7 should you wish. We often don't realize the amount of run-time our furnaces operate in a month while keeping up to the extremely cold winter temperatures or the hot summer heat. Since our furnaces are almost always in operation, we can take advantage of this used energy and filter or purify the air in our homes at the same time, without the need for additional electricity consumption or appliances.
Most furnace duct systems are designed to draw air from bedrooms, hallways, and living spaces then filter, heat and/or cool the air and return that conditioned air to those same living spaces. At the same time, it will draw in a small percentage of fresh air which will mix with the other air returning to the furnace. This is what helps keep your home feeling fresh among other benefits but we'll save that for another time.
How we filter the air that is circulating in the duct system is key. A filter that is too restrictive can cause additional power consumption and more wear on system components. It can even create some pretty dangerous scenarios by causing improper furnace operation that can go unnoticed by an untrained eye.
A filter of low quality can allow dust, hair, allergens, and germs to circulate throughout your system and your home. This can collect on system components and cause additional damage to your heating and cooling units.
We always recommend to check your furnace filters monthly, unless you have a high quality filter that is rated for up to 12 months of use. Our filter and purifier product selection can be viewed here and we stock common sizes at our office for homeowner purchase. We also recommend having your equipment serviced annually by one of our trained and certified technicians to help prevent those unwanted breakdowns and to help keep your system operating safely and efficiently.
For additional filter tips and information you can contact us or check out some additional info from Lennox.
