November is the month when the really cold weather takes hold of our region and you begin relying heavily on your furnace. Your heating system is the workhorse of your home, keeping your family warm and safe when temperatures plummet.
Besides scheduling a maintenance appointment, one of the most important things you can do to make sure your furnace is running at peak efficiency is to change the air filter regularly during the heating season. But a common question we get from homeowners has to do with how often to change the air filter.
The filter should be changed every 1-3 months the furnace is in use. Let’s go over why it’s so essential to change the filter on a regular basis and how doing so helps keep your furnace from breaking down unexpectedly.
How a Clean Filter Benefits Your Furnace
The air filter on your furnace has an important job: it keeps contaminants such as dust, lint, pet and human dander, and other debris from entering the furnace’s internal parts. Just like with any piece of equipment or complicated machinery, clean working parts are essential to its performance.
After 1-3 months, the build-up of dust and dirt will be enough to clog it and impede the furnace’s airflow. This can cause a whole host of problems such as hindering its energy efficiency, lowering its performance, and damaging the furnace itself. By changing or cleaning the filter on a regular basis, your furnace will receive the following benefits.
- Increased efficiency: A clogged filter is one of the main culprits behind increased heating costs. The furnace must have a clean air filter so the blower motor won’t have to strain to pull air through the system.
- Increased heating capacity: When the furnace’s blower can’t pull in the same volume of air through a dirty filter, a lower volume of air gets heated. A clean filter means your furnace can work at full capacity.
- Increased lifespan: As a filter becomes clogged, it won’t be able to keep dirt and dust from getting inside the furnace. The filter will distort from the air pressure and allow debris to slip around the sides, contaminating precision parts inside the furnace. Changing the filter regularly increases your furnace’s lifespan by reducing wear and tear.
- Decreased utility bills: Keeping the furnace clean and free of dirt is one of the best things you can do to help keep your utility bills low. Of course, an old and outdated furnace will cost a lot to run no matter how often you change the filter but it’ll still help.
Few things directly affect your comfort levels as much as your heating system. Not only is it tasked with keeping your home warm and cozy when it’s cold out, but it also keeps your family safe when temperatures drop. You need to be able to depend on your heating system when you need it most.
Contact A-1 Mechanical Heating & Cooling for your next furnace service in Lansing, MI. Comfort and Character You Can Depend On!