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3 Easy Ways to Remember to Check Your House’s Air Filter

Author: Amitava Sarkar
by Amitava Sarkar
Posted: Jun 11, 2015

The air you and your family breathe passes through a filter in your air conditioning and/or furnace system. The dust that accumulates in the system is pushed through your air vents every time you use the air or heat. If anyone in the house is sensitive to dust, pollen, mildew and pet dander, just staying indoors can wreak havoc on their sinuses. Even if your family is fairly allergy-free, though, breathing in dusty air can take a toll on your health, especially if you have pets or don’t dust the house very often.

The filer in your air system is your most effective defense against unwanted particles circulating throughout your home. However, if you’re like most home owners, you forget it even exists, so you don’t change it on a regular basis. You should be changing it once a month when the system is getting heavy use and every other month when you’re not using the furnace or air conditioning as much – but either way, you should still check it each week to see if it’s so dark it needs an early replacement. You can’t be overly cautious when it comes to changing your filter. It’s better to change it too often – especially since filters are affordable – than not often enough.

Schedule Regular Maintenance

If a professional cleans your system at the start of the summer and winter seasons, your filters will get less dirty and be less in need of frequent changes. Schedule regular visits with your local HVAC technicians and have them call you to remind you it’s time for another cleaning. Breathe better with a thorough cleaning of the system – something you can’t safely attempt on your own. Have the professional examine your filter while there and switch it out if necessary. That’s twice a year the filter will get changed without you having to remember to do it.

Input It Into Your Calendar

Whether you rely on your smartphone calendar or still have a physical calendar on the kitchen wall, schedule "check filter" into your monthly appointments. If it’s always at the very beginning or very end – or even the middle – of a month, it’ll be easier for you to remember to pencil it in. A few days before your "check filter" day, you might schedule "buy filter" as well so you have it on hand if you think it needs to be swapped out. Even if it’s relatively clean, it doesn’t hurt to change it anyway.

Install a Filter Alert

Ask your air conditioning and furnace technician about filter alerts. A filter alert installed on your existing air flow system or as part of a new installation monitors the progression of particle build-up for you and makes a chirping sound when it’s time to change the filter. It’s the most cost effective way to keep your air clean, as you only need to change the filter when it’s no longer at its peak functionality, and you don’t have to pay attention to when you last changed it. A filter alert is especially helpful to home and building owners whose air systems are in hard-to-get-to spaces like crawlspaces, as you won’t have to check it unnecessarily.

A more efficient cooling or heating system is less likely to spread dust particles and will help your filters stay cleaner longer. Consider upgrading to a new system this year. It will pay for itself after you start saving on heating and cooling costs.

About the Author: Karl Houck is a repairman and home and life blogger from North Carolina. He always recommends www.kayheating.com to his clients in need of air conditioning and furnace installation and repair.

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Author: Amitava Sarkar

Amitava Sarkar

Member since: Nov 27, 2014
Published articles: 349

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