When it comes to caring for your furnace, it’s kind of like taking care of your car. Instead of a tune up and oil changes, it requires an annual cleaning and filter changes. If you aren’t changing your filters every 3 to 9 month you should be – and here’s why.
Extends the life of your equipment. When your furnace has better airflow, it doesn’t have to work as hard to keep your home or office hot or cold. Air is drawn in and passed over the heat exchanger, and then pushed out into your home through a filter. That filter is responsible for catching things like dust, debris, hair, and pet fur so that it doesn’t end up in the air you are breathing. Think about what your vacuum collects after you run it over your floors – all that nastiness is captured by the air filter and they can get pretty gross. The more clogged they are, the harder your furnace has to work to push the air through. And the harder your furnace has to work, the shorter the life of your furnace will be. A simple rule is the less work your furnace has to do to create airflow, then longer life expectancy it will have.
It saves you money and energy. If your furnace has a clogged air filter, it makes sense that it’s going to require more energy to force the air through it. The less work your furnace requires to move the air, the less money it’s going to cost you. Additionally, that means using fewer natural resources and fuels. Keeping the air flowing easily through your filters will allow your furnace to consume only the energy it needs for optimal efficiency. Less excess energy waste is not only good for the environment, but also for your wallet!
Less unscheduled maintenance. No one hopes that their furnace is going need some urgent TLC – especially during extreme hot or cold spells. If you don’t change your air filters regularly, you’ll most likely end up with some unexpected repair bills. The excess work your furnace needs to do to push air through the clogged filters will likely result in a breakdown – eventually. If the heat exchanger is working too hard, it will get too hot. If you have a newer system, you may have a control which shuts the furnace down if the heat exchanger temperature gets too hot, which is a great feature that saves your furnace from overheating and causing major damage, but it can be very inconvenient when you are left without heat. Once you get to this point, you’ll have no choice but to call in the experts from some unscheduled maintenance.
Why do you need to change them every 3 to 9 months? Most manufactures have done the research and that’s the ideal timeframe to change those air filters before it causes extra stress on your furnace. A great way to remember to do it, is to change them at the beginning and end of Day Light Savings. Most people also change their batteries in their smoke detectors at these times too. It will save the life of your furnace, save you money, and save you from the headache of breakdowns when you least expect it!
If you’ve never changed your filters before, have questions about your furnace, or need to schedule your annual maintenance, give us a call!
