Edward
2024 Supporter
It's winter time now so I thought I'd give all of my brothers and sisters here a informative boost about their furnaces (and A/C). Knowledge is power. The more you know about your furnace (or A/C), the more you can easily do good things for it to prevent breakdown so save money on costly repairs. I'm open to questions. I'll try to be thorough for you all.
What is unit efficiency? We hear, he has an 80% furnace, she has a high efficiency 90% furnace...what's that mean??? Simple. Think of it this way...in dollars! For every dollars worth of gas that it burns to heat your home, you'll get 80% of that dollar into your house as usable heat. 80% efficient = 80 cents on the dollar for gas, or 90% or whatever. See? Simple.
What can I do for my furnace to save money, and help it to operate as intended?
That old cliche'...change the air filter. That cliche is so old and worn out, people wonder if it's really that important? YES! why? Several reasons. #1 is airflow. If the unit's filter is plugged then it wont move as much air as it should and it will have to run longer to be able to satisfy the thermostat and shut it off.That will raise your gas bill. #2 is, with a plugged filter, it will load up the blower motor and make it work harder (shortening it's service life!). #3 is, because the unit will not be moving as much air as it should, the unit itself will run hotter. Those fancy new electronic controls that they have now do not like heat. Excess heat shortens the service life of electronics. Plus, the excess heat will shorten the service life of your unit's 'heat-exchanger' causing cracks and accelerated heat wear. So keeping a clean air filter is very important for your furnace and the best thing that any homeowner can do for their furnace.
How often should I change or clean my filter?
They always say once per month. In reality, it is...How much dirt do you get tracked into your house? How many kids? How many animals? Long hair/short hair? Take all of this into account. If the kids are grown and gone...took fido with them maybe? Then you may not need to change the filter very often. OTOH, if you have 4 kids and they're at the age of tracking in the whole neighborhood, and you have a long hair setter that sheds like mad...maybe you should change it every 2 weeks?! Try this. Next time you change the filter, check it in 2 weeks. Use your judgment. The rule with filters is...when in doubt, change it out.
I have repeat customers houses where the lady is old and alone, a clean freak anyway, and her filter hardly ever gets dirty. I change it once a year for her. I have other customers who have 4 or 5 kids and animals and they change it every 2 weeks for real. They readily agreed to do this after having to replace a 500 dollar computer board in their unit because the filter was plugged up.
What about high efficiency filters? Should I use one?
They are good. I use one. This is where most people are confused. They think high efficiency filter...must last longer...No. The opposite is true. The more efficient the filter, the more dust it catches and the faster it plugs up! So you have to clean it more often. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you will really go clean the thing every 2 weeks? If you wont, then don't buy it. It will catch more dirt and really filter your air. (you know how when the sun shines through the window, that you can see dust floating in the air? Not in my house.
Your normal cheap fiberglass filter for a buck or two at home Depot or whatever is the most common filter. They are about 7 or 8% efficient, which is to say that 92 or 93% of the dust goes right through it! They will become more efficient as they get dirty so will have more surface area to catch more dirt, lol. One thing that you can do to make your cheap filter more efficient is to spray the dirt collection side with furniture polish like Pledge or some such. It'll catch more dirt and make the house smell lemony.
I'll detail more in other posts about different aspects of heating and the systems. If you have a question feel free to ask
What is unit efficiency? We hear, he has an 80% furnace, she has a high efficiency 90% furnace...what's that mean??? Simple. Think of it this way...in dollars! For every dollars worth of gas that it burns to heat your home, you'll get 80% of that dollar into your house as usable heat. 80% efficient = 80 cents on the dollar for gas, or 90% or whatever. See? Simple.
What can I do for my furnace to save money, and help it to operate as intended?
That old cliche'...change the air filter. That cliche is so old and worn out, people wonder if it's really that important? YES! why? Several reasons. #1 is airflow. If the unit's filter is plugged then it wont move as much air as it should and it will have to run longer to be able to satisfy the thermostat and shut it off.That will raise your gas bill. #2 is, with a plugged filter, it will load up the blower motor and make it work harder (shortening it's service life!). #3 is, because the unit will not be moving as much air as it should, the unit itself will run hotter. Those fancy new electronic controls that they have now do not like heat. Excess heat shortens the service life of electronics. Plus, the excess heat will shorten the service life of your unit's 'heat-exchanger' causing cracks and accelerated heat wear. So keeping a clean air filter is very important for your furnace and the best thing that any homeowner can do for their furnace.
How often should I change or clean my filter?
They always say once per month. In reality, it is...How much dirt do you get tracked into your house? How many kids? How many animals? Long hair/short hair? Take all of this into account. If the kids are grown and gone...took fido with them maybe? Then you may not need to change the filter very often. OTOH, if you have 4 kids and they're at the age of tracking in the whole neighborhood, and you have a long hair setter that sheds like mad...maybe you should change it every 2 weeks?! Try this. Next time you change the filter, check it in 2 weeks. Use your judgment. The rule with filters is...when in doubt, change it out.
I have repeat customers houses where the lady is old and alone, a clean freak anyway, and her filter hardly ever gets dirty. I change it once a year for her. I have other customers who have 4 or 5 kids and animals and they change it every 2 weeks for real. They readily agreed to do this after having to replace a 500 dollar computer board in their unit because the filter was plugged up.
What about high efficiency filters? Should I use one?
They are good. I use one. This is where most people are confused. They think high efficiency filter...must last longer...No. The opposite is true. The more efficient the filter, the more dust it catches and the faster it plugs up! So you have to clean it more often. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you will really go clean the thing every 2 weeks? If you wont, then don't buy it. It will catch more dirt and really filter your air. (you know how when the sun shines through the window, that you can see dust floating in the air? Not in my house.
Your normal cheap fiberglass filter for a buck or two at home Depot or whatever is the most common filter. They are about 7 or 8% efficient, which is to say that 92 or 93% of the dust goes right through it! They will become more efficient as they get dirty so will have more surface area to catch more dirt, lol. One thing that you can do to make your cheap filter more efficient is to spray the dirt collection side with furniture polish like Pledge or some such. It'll catch more dirt and make the house smell lemony.
I'll detail more in other posts about different aspects of heating and the systems. If you have a question feel free to ask
Oh...my...gosh. That would cost extra. That's scary!