Which way does the furnace filter go? Is there a wrong way to put in the furnace filter?
The short answer is yes, there is a wrong way to replace your furnace filter, but never fear. We show you exactly how to replace your furnace air filter and why your furnace filter direction matters.
The Correct Furnace Filter Direction
First of all, if you’re changing the filter, even if you put it in wrong, it’s better than not changing it all. So good job!
There is an arrow on the filter, sometimes they are very tiny. The arrow is an air flow indicator. What you want to remember is that this is the furnace’s filter. So, the arrow always points toward the furnace.
You could be in a basement where the return air comes down the left side or you could have a house where the return air comes down the right side. Always remember whether it’s coming from the left side, the right side, the arrow always points towards the furnace.
Why Is It Important For The Filter To Be Put In Correctly?
The reason they put those the airflow arrows on the filter is because the filter is constructed in a certain way to withstand the air pressure that will be going through the filter. When you know the airflow will be going in a certain direction the filter can be reinforced so it doesn’t pull apart or be sucked into the blower compartment.
Many filters have a side that is reinforced with the cardboard and the other side is open to actually filter the air. When the filter is replaced correctly with the arrows pointing toward the furnace, it will have proper reinforcement and will ultimately be longer lasting and more efficient.
As a life-long allergy sufferer, he is allergic to pollen, ragweed, animal dander, you name it. However he always says that when he is home, he doesn’t feel like he has allergies. “Growing up I was a mess. But now I can open my windows in my house, and because of the filtration that I have in my system, it’s actually helping clean the air out constantly, so that that’s where it really helps and I don’t suffer.”
Allergy Sufferers Keep Their Homes Closed Up
Homeowners, especially if they have allergies, are reluctant to open their windows. Therefore they are going from heat to air conditioning immediately because they they just cannot handle opening the windows because the suffering is not worth the economic savings that they’ll get by opening the windows and not running the air.
This is a good call because that is exactly what the Mayo Clinic recommends if you have allergies. Here is the list of recommendations from the Mayo Clinic to combat the allergy season:
Use a portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter in your bedroom.
Clean floors often with a vacuum cleaner that has a HEPA filter.
If you keep your house closed up and do not have a high efficiency filtration system or UV sterilization system, it is like breathing in a bubble. Homes are built so tight we are all just sharing the same air over and over again and that would be the equivalent of me blowing up a balloon and then having somebody else breathe what’s in the balloon. We’re doing it every day in our homes. Gross. Let’s freshen up that air.
What Does An HVAC Professional Use In His Own House to Combat Allergies?
Two things. One is a UV (Ultraviolet Light) Sterilization System.
The UV Sterilization System has two bulbs in it that produce two different types of UVC rays, which are used for killing germs and bacteria and viruses. This is the same type of light they are using at hospitals where they wheel it into a hospital room and shine UVC rays on the surfaces of the room that could potentially have bacteria. The UVC Light is there to kill bacteria and viruses.
There is a seperate bulb inside the chamber that produces UVB rays which helps to take care of all of the chemicals that we have in our homes. So many items in our homes off gas chemicals and we breathe them. Think of anything in your home that has a smell: Glade plugins, candles, aerosols, detergents, beaches, even the paint on your walls and the glues in the carpet have chemicals in them and we breathe in those chemicals potentially triggering allergies and illnesses.
Second is a Micro Power Guard Air Filtration System
The Micro Power Guard takes care of the particles floating around our homes. There are particulates in the air such as dust, pollen, animal dander, smoke, etc. that regular air filters don’t do a great job at removing. Regular disposable air filters will catch the bowling ball-sized particles but will leave the finer particles that can effect your allergies.
How the Micro Power Guard is so efficient is because it has an electronic polarized media. It uses the electricity to polarize or magnetize itself and turns it into a magnet for particles and it does it through a carbon insert. It uses electricity to pull the small the small fine particles towards it so that it definitely doesn’t get through for you to breathe.
We’ve been putting these in four years now and they work better than anything else we’ve used. They’re amazing.
They’re safe and reliable too. Our Micro Power Guards have a lifetime warranty.
True Story: The only time we had a Micro Power Guard fail was when a customer submerged it in the bathtub in order to clean it. Other than that, they’ll work forever.
Air Envy?
Yes. It’s a thing. We’ve actually had cases of air envy where where one homeowner says, I don’t know what you did next door, but I want air like his. Whatever you did over there. That’s what I want.
Once you experience clean air you will notice when it is not there in other homes or buildings. Matt doesn’t notice two cats in his house and he’s allergic to cats. Matt said “I’ve had I’ve had friends over for hours and later said ‘you have cats?’ and I say actually we have two of them and I’m badly allergic to cats. They cannot believe they didn’t notice when they came into my home.”
UV Sterilization System and Micro Power Guard Help With More Than Just Allergies
In a study done by Environmental Health and Engineering, Inc.* researchers set out to measure the potential exposure benefits of whole house high efficiency in-duct air cleaners. The study focused on sensitive subpopulations such as those who have asthma or severe allergies. The results indicated that the use of high efficiency in-duct air cleaners provide an effective means of controlling allergen levels not only in a single room, like a portable air cleaner, but the whole house.
The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation recommends the use of portable air cleaners in bedrooms of asthmatics. While the use of portable air cleaners in the bedroom did prove to be beneficial in the study, the researchers found that in reality, the use of high efficiency in-duct air cleaners provide a more effective means of controlling allergen levels and the influenza virus not only in a single room, but the whole house.
Perhaps the most interesting result from the study…
Involves the estimation of the risk of influenza infection from an individual who remains in the home over the course of a five-day infectious period with someone who currently has the illness. Since influenza can trigger asthma, the researchers were interested in the effect of high efficiency filters on the transmission of the illness.
The study assumed that the infectious individual spent one-half of their time in the bedroom and the other half in the family room, while a healthy individual spent 69% of the corresponding time indoors at the home during which they were exposed to the house-wide average concentration of quanta in air. For this scenario, the risk of infection by influenza was greater than 30% in the ventilation configuration with a portable air cleaner in both of the two rooms frequented by the infectious individual. In comparison, the risk of infection was less than 4% for the high efficiency in-duct system.
The “high efficiency air cleaner” used in this study was a high efficiency electrostatic air cleaner with HEPA-like removal efficiency for aerosols. One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning has this product for your home as well as more options that add even more protection for the health of your indoor air.
The Correct Furnace Filter Direction
