How To Choose The Best Air Filters For Your House (Home Air Filtration 101)

Most of us don’t alter the air filters in our dwelling furnace / HVAC system as frequently as we’re supposed to. (I know I don’t.)

Generally, most 1” furnace filters should be changed at least every 2 to 3 months. Larger, pleated cartridge-type furnace filters (3″ to 5″) can continue up to 12 months between changes. Source Instead, we go several months at a time and just replace them whenever we begin to find dust piling up on furniture quicker than ever, or we happen to detect dust gathering on the furnace vents themselves! (Am I right?)

Nevertheless, proper house air filtration demands which you change the air filters in your house on a regular basis, before you start to see signs that’s it’s been awhile since you last changed them.

In addition to that, most people don’t actually comprehend the differences between the more economical air filters and higher-quality ones. For years, I used those affordable $1.98 fiberglass air filters for all the air ports in our home. (You know, those bright blue ones which are encased in a flimsy cardboard framework.)
 
If I just knew then what I know now!…

Not only can house air filtration be a matter of life and death for people who suffer from a large number of respiratory illnesses, but even those considered normal and healthy can profit from cleaner, dust-free, and allergen-free air.
By removing pollutants from the atmosphere (both chemical and environmental ones), your family will have the ability to breathe cleaner air on a daily basis and your electricity bills will be lower too — because your HVAC unit won’t need to work so challenging.

Here’s everything you have to know about house air filtration, plus suggestions for choosing the best air filter for home

House Air Filter Evaluations
 
Mechanical air filters are the most common type of house air filters used in residential HVAC systems.

These filters use synthetic fibers to trap small particles, debris, and dust, among other things — preventing those things from circulating in the air and getting into our lungs.

The effectiveness of a mechanical air filter is quantified in MERV evaluations (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value). Generally, the more affordable the filter is, the lower the MERV number is. Quite simply, you get what you buy. Air filters with lower MERV ratings have to be replaced more often.

 
Mechanical air filters remove dust by getting it on the filter medium, the stuff which makes up the filter element. A mechanical air filter is any kind of dry media filter. All the throwaway air filters used in HVAC systems and Air Handlers are mechanical air filters. Any man made or natural fiber filter is a mechanical air filter. This consists of HEPA air filters too.

Kinds Of Mechanical Air Filters

 
Mechanical air filters include the following:

 
Fiberglass air filters have become thin and they've an easy flat panel surface for trapping particles in the atmosphere. They were initially developed to protect your heat and air conditioning equipment, to not enhance your indoor air quality. They are able to frequently be bought for less than $1 apiece. Sadly, they remove less than 10% of the atmosphere pollutants out of your house. They've a MERV rating between 1 and 4.

 
View this short video on the need for great filters. You'll see how small the low-cost air filters actually keep out.

Pleated air filters remove up to 45% of the atmosphere pollutants out of your house. How many pleats per foot affect their overall efficacy. They typically cost around $10 each. They've a MERV rating of 10 to 13.

The filter with more pleats per foot across the face will let you have better airflow throughout your house. The more air that flows through your house, the more frequently it's passed and re-circulated through the filter. The outcome is cleaner air due to the higher frequency of air passes through the filter. For instance, if you could find a means to install a hospital score operating room filter at home unit, it'd do you much good because your fan and motor doesn’t have enough power to push enough air through it. An excellent quality filter with a high MERV 11 evaluation can in fact make you with dirtier air than using a low-cost 1 dollar filter if the MERV 11 filter doesn’t have enough pleats per foot. Less pleats per foot is a cheap and dirty manner for filter sellers to fool buyers into believing they've been getting an improved deal. Insist on MERV 11 filters that have the very least of 18 pleats per foot! Source.

High efficiency air filters are the most practical air filters for most residential HVAC systems, removing up to 85% of the atmosphere pollutants out of your house. They've a MERV rating between 14 and 16.

These filters can trap tiny particles of dust, pollen, mould, and other irritants. A few of these filters operate much like the atmosphere and oil filters in your automobile. They're made using pleated filter paper. Other filters are created using fine artificial polyester fibers. Higher efficiency air filters will often be coated with chemicals that can kill miniature microbes including bacteria and mould. There are several advantages to using these higher efficiency air filters. Not only will your heating and cooling equipment perform better, your operating costs may well be lower. The air you breathe will be cleaner, as will your furniture and drapes. That $60 service call could have purchased 10 filters that will have continued through five cooling seasons! Source.

True HEPA (or High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters provide the best filtration to your house by removing up to 98% of air pollutants out of your house. They've a MERV rating between 17 and 20. Nevertheless, they are able to simply be used in an entire house filtration system or a standalone air purifier.

Sadly, HEPA filters limit an excessive amount of atmosphere to be used as a conventional furnace filter. A HEPA filter is incredibly efficient, but a considerable quantity of air pressure will become necessary to push air through a HEPA filter. An average HVAC system WOn't be equipped to supply enough air pressure to use a HEPA filter (which essentially means that no air would blow from the registers). To be able to use a HEPA filter for whole house filtration, you should install another HEPA filtration system. A system such as this will pull some of the atmosphere from the routine air flow through your furnace, and after that foster the atmosphere and pass it through a HEPA filter. The incredibly filtered air is subsequently returned back into the regular air flow. Source

Microns = The Size Of Particles Captured

 
If you’re wondering whether it is possible to remove the dependence on dusting by selecting air filters with better micron evaluations, the truth is that better quality air filters wil dramatically reduce the importance of dusting, but they won’t remove it.

Dust in the atmosphere includes particulates that range in size from quite small (0.001 micron) to quite large (100 microns).

So, while the smaller dust particles in your home may be captured by the air filters, sadly, due of the weight of the larger dust particles in the air, they'll settle in your furniture long before they could reach your air filter.
 
More economical fiberglass filters are better at trapping larger particles (up to 10 microns), but not smaller particles.

Better high efficiency air filters are better at trapping smaller particles (down to .3 microns), but not the bigger particles. The smaller ones are often the most dangerous.

To help put this into perspective, a hair out of your head is about 60-75 microns in diameter. Particles under 35 microns aren't observable to the naked eye. You can’t see most of the contaminants in the air. Pollen particles can range from 10 to 100 microns in size; dust from 0.5 to 5 microns; human dander, 10 microns or higher; etc. Most dangerous particles are less than 5 microns in size.