Having a clean air filter is an important part of maintaining your forced air heating and cooling system. It’s one of the best ways to protect your HVAC system between maintenance tune-ups and it raises the air quality in your home.
The air filter keeps pollution and debris out of your HVAC system, ensuring proper and efficient operation. A dirty filter will slow down the airflow; making both the furnace work harder to heat your home and your AC work harder to cool it. This wastes energy and can result in higher energy bills.
You should always double-check your owner’s manual for specific recommendations, but generally speaking it’s best to clean or change your filters once every 3 to 9 months. Most filters are easy to slide and swap out.
There are other factors that can help you determine if you should be changing them more or less often. The type of air filter you are using could be good for longer periods or, if it’s a cheaper one, less. If the overall air quality of your home is not good you want to change the filter more often. Same if you have pets.
If you suffer from light to moderate allergies, you could upgrade the air filter or change them even more often. Why do pets matter so much? They have a tendency to shed, which can clog your air filter quick and with great success. Of course the air filter is just doing its job by capturing pet hair and dander, but extremely dirty filters can cause extremely weak HVAC performance.
Depending on where you live, the time of year, and how much you’re using your AC or furnace, you may end up having to change your air filter more frequently. For instance, during a steamy summer when you’re running your system constantly, you may end up having to change the filter more often than if the weather is nice and you’re relying on open windows.