Know When to Clean Your Filters With HVAC Monitoring

No Time Like The Present.

Cleaning may not always sound like the best of chores but when it comes to our Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, cleaning is a must and if we make ourselves open to the thought of interesting discoveries even in the most mundane of tasks, the result is almost always more rewarding than we most often expect it to be.

Word to the wise, it’s best to start with tasks that help with your overall mood or environment, so why not start with what’s responsible for cleaning your indoor air.

Here are some tips, tricks, and a good HVAC Monitoring Solution you’d want to keep for a rainy day so we would all find that massive dust monster clinging onto your precious air filters a little less daunting.

Let us Start with Some Positive Affirmations.

The first step would be to get into a good mental headspace to better understand your current undertaking and also to at least make it more official rather than giving you any amount of time to even think about canceling.

Start with the end in mind. You’ve probably heard about checklists, or making goals to accomplish all your to-do lists, but for occasions as special as cleaning your filters, it would be wise to have a mental vision of what you get when all of this is over and done with.

Hence, we’ve jotted down some feel-good rewards that answer to why you should lay a solid HVAC Monitoring and clean out plan for that fluffy furnace filter.

1) Easy Breezy

First and foremost, get to know what kind of filter your system or appliance comes with. If you’re lucky, you’d have one that’s disposable instead. So cleaning would be a breeze since it only requires replacing old filters with new ones. If you have the washable type then that’s when you’ll need the rest of these mental notes with you the whole way through.

2) System Reboot for Performance that’s as Good as New.

It’s hard to get certain things running when there’s a clog, right? The slower circulation in your air must mean something’s bugging your HVAC, and when that clog is outta here you can feel the breeze and better circulation indoors as if someone’s opened a massive window on a beautiful day. Also, if there’s too much clog, that would cause your equipment to try and work harder which tends to lead to overheating and possible breakdowns. Best avoid that if you won’t have money ready for repairs.

3) Goodbye Annoying Mood Swings caused by Discomfort in the Lack of Air Circulation.

No one can get work done if your body’s melting more than unrefrigerated ice cream. Unless you’ve got backup electric fans and whatnot, it is time to put a stop to this madness of holding off on the sprucing. That doesn’t sound like an ideal setup for all the hustlers working from home during this ungodly pandemic.

4) Cutting Down on your Electric Bill.

If your HVAC is working overtime, guess what, so are those numbers tallying on your next due payment for electricity. It doesn’t matter if you’re loaded with cash or not, if you are looking to get through this pandemic era all in one piece, every penny counts right now, and what you can save from a day of sprucing could go to your emergency piggy bank instead of wasteful consumption on energy. You know you need to save more than what you have in your account this year. Keep yourself insured.

5) Newly Provided Filter Space to Suck up More Harmful Contaminants

Don’t expect your dirty filter to automatically shed off a few pounds for it to continue trapping dirt and other particles. These tiny things are still made up of mass, they carry some form of weight, have circumference or width and height, which means it takes up a certain amount of space, and there are lots of them floating around. Take out one load of trash so you would be ready for your next load. It’s as easy as that to make sure your indoor air quality is constantly being improved.

How to Know if it’s Really Time for Sprucing?

Unlike your simpler home appliance air purifier, large HVAC systems don’t always come with visual indicators that would let you know if you have a clogged-up filter. However, it is simple enough to notice the subtle clues or signs that would point you towards your own mental spruce alarm.

1) Dustier Color

We’re confident you know what dust looks like and if there is a significant buildup on your filter, that part of your equipment has probably changed in color over the last six months or so. One surefire way to check of course would be to pull out the filter when your HVAC is off and if that fuzzy gray color is coming off when you wipe through it then fuzzy needs to go.

2) Buildup on the Inside and Outside.

Chances are that if your HVAC is having difficulty sucking more dust and dirt, the rest of those particles that are suspended in the air will eventually land on your surfaces and would start to create a new layer of fuzzies on top of those too. We can already envision you readers running your fingers on the top shelves for inspection.

3) Heavy Weight-Lifting.

Fuzzy buildup equals full filter. A full filter equals an overworked system. Overworked systems mean your HVAC is getting tired and he’s gonna take a while longer to get his usual chores done in comparison to when his system was spacious, clean, and empty.

4) Six-Month Mark.

Your manufacturer should be responsible enough to have made you aware of the product’s need for cleaning every six months to ensure full customer satisfaction. Always read the fine print. If you don’t have the patience to read the manual, always ask or better yet keep yourself informed through research such as this.

Spruce Frequently.

You’re probably tired of all the nagging to get some chores done from your spouse or parents, probably employers and now from us, but this old school advice cannot be stressed enough, and you’ll be thanking us later for reminding you. You wouldn’t want to give that dust monster allowance to keep on growing, best give him a trim now and then and that would save you the stress of having to even think about cleaning out the filter/s.

There are a few key things to consider in knowing how often you should clean your HVAC filter and although that would depend on factors like what your manufacturer-recommended. Factors including your equipment’s efficiency, HVAC system use, and what your household situation is like in terms of how much dust accumulates in your area, the following are just some general guidelines you can start considering before you take out your cleaning planner:

1) MERV Rating.

If your HVAC’s Minimum-Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) rating is low, then you’re going to be cleaning a lot more often than if you had availed a system with filters of higher efficiency. Heating or cooling systems of lesser value tend to point towards more work for maintenance. Check with your manufacturer or look for the manual to identify what your MERV rating is.

2) HVAC Monitoring System

Of course, even if you do purchase something more affordable it doesn’t always instantly mean your equipment doesn’t come with a great built-in maintenance system of its own. It is the age of great technological and innovative advances, so do be sure you have HVAC monitoring system to know how often to spruce with your MERV ratings in mind.

3) Usage.

If you’re going to ask how often you’re required to clean or change filters then you should initially ask yourself how often you’re going to use them as well. That means during seasons when you have frequent use, make it a habit to check your HVAC monitoring to get a good grip on how fast your dust and dirt tend to build up during these times. Even when you’re not using them, monitoring your filters on a consistent monthly basis would be smart. Wintertime you’re probably running your heaters a lot more than your air conditioner, or furnaces most likely during spring and fall. More usage means more air passing through your systems and that leads to more particles captured by your filters. Just making sure we haven’t lost our train of thought — or dirt for that matter.

4) Household Contributors of Dust Build-Up.

Dust is an accumulation of many things including your sloughed-off skin cells, hair, clothing fibers. So if you are raising pets or if there are more of you living under the same roof, there is a bigger chance that your filters need more frequent tending to than a pet-free household or a home that only comprises a single person. Other contributing components would be bacteria, dust mites, bits of dead bugs, soil particles, pollen, and unfortunately some microscopic specks of plastic.

Also, if you’re housing smokers, getting them to quit would not only be of their own physical and mental benefit, but it would do your filters a lot of good without the byproducts floating around from several nasty cigarettes.

AKCP HVAC Monitoring Solution.

Of course, if you hardly even have the time, there is no better solution than being able to delegate the tasks of your HVAC monitoring concerns with the right experts. Innovative solutions such as Wireless Air Quality Sensors could already help eliminate a few of your chores.

An air particle sensor is utilized during Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) assessments of clean rooms and workplaces. The specific type of particles is not detected, but it identifies the quantity or mass of airborne particles. These air particles could be sourced from :

a.) Exhaust smoke
b.) Airborne dust particles
c.) Pollen

Airborne pollutants can be a health hazard, and result in sneezing, headaches, asthma, and so on. Also, during many agricultural and industrial processes, airborne dust can be a serious hazard forming combustible dust clouds.

So when in doubt, head to https://www.akcp.com/, established in the USA in 1981, has 30+ years of experience in professional sensor solutions. AKCP created the market for networked temperature, environmental, and power monitoring in the data center. Today with over 150 employees and 200,000 installations, AKCP is the world’s oldest and largest manufacturer of networked wired and wireless sensors.

Let AKCP guide you through your HVAC Monitoring journey.

References Links:

https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i7/Tracing-chemistry-household-dust.html#:~:text=More%20than%20just%20dirt%2C%20house,dust%20is%20far%20from%20inert.