Change your air filters every one to three months! This should take you less than 5 minutes and is one of the best things you as a homeowner, can do for your HVAC system. Some ways to help you remember this can be changing it every time you pay your electric bill. When you install a new filter write the date on each of them so you can check to see when the last time you changed it was if you don’t remember.
Having a dirty HVAC filter creates problems for the system by:
1. Reduced air flow: AC Units are designed to work with a certain amount of air flow, and when that air flow is restricted it can lead to unnecessary wear and tear on the unit itself an possible premature failure.
2. Cooling inefficiency: As dust and dirt collect on the coils, it disrupts and lessens the heat transfer from the air to the coils.
3. The first two problems individually or combined means the AC has to operate for longer and longer time periods to achieve the same result, which the more it runs, the more power it uses and the higher your utility bill will be.
Your filters should NOT look like this!
This filter should have been changed well before getting to this point.
