Is it time to change the air filter in your HVAC system? If you’re an allergy sufferer, you know the importance of changing the air filter throughout the year to minimize air pollutants in your home.
Choosing the right type of filter can have an impact on how you weather the different allergy seasons. An ineffective filter can make it more difficult to breathe freely while inside your house. The best type of filter can improve your indoor air quality and minimize your allergy suffering as seasons change.
Want to learn more? Here are 9 fast facts about air filters for allergies.
1. Higher MERV Means Fewer Allergens
The MERV rating helps you find the best air filter for your home. MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values) rates a filter based on its ability to capture particles in the air.
Lower MERV-rated filters allow more particles into your HVAC system. When more dust, dirt, pollens, and allergens make their way into the system, they also blow through the air ducts and into the air inside your home.
When choosing the best air filters for allergies, consider a filter with a higher MERV rating. Filters with MERV 11 rating an higher can help your system filter smaller allergens out of the air so you can breathe easier.
2. Size Matters
Not all furnaces are the same size. When choosing a filter, make sure it’s the appropriate size for your furnace.
If you install the wrong size filter, it can’t do its job! Whether it’s too large or too small for the air intake opening, particles can slip in around the edges where the filter doesn’t seal properly.
You should be able to confirm the filter size somewhere on your furnace unit before buying your next filter.
3. Dirty Filters Can Trigger Allergies
You know it’s essential to change an air filter regularly to help protect your HVAC system. It’s also a critical task to avoid triggering your allergies during allergy season.
When a filter becomes clogged with dust, dirt, and allergens, it can’t filter properly. The allergens that trigger your sneezing, coughing, and wheezing can find their way into your HVAC system and disperse into your home’s air.
Set a schedule to change your filters quarterly or monthly, depending on the type of filter your choose!
4. Filters Protect Your HVAC System
The primary purpose of an HVAC filter is to protect the furnace system—not improve the air quality. That’s why filters with low MERV ratings aren’t designed to remove many allergens that can trigger your seasonal allergies.
If you suffer from allergies, your HVAC air filter has to do more than protect your system. Choose filters that filter pet dander, dust, pollen, smoke, and other triggers for allergies.
5. Filters Can’t Do It All
While a high MERV filter can significantly improve indoor air quality, they can’t solve all of the allergy-related issues in your home. A combined approach can be the best solution to help you make it through each changing allergy season with fewer symptoms.
In addition to choosing the right air filters:
- Remove carpeting and replace with wood or laminate flooring
- Don’t allow smoking in the house
- Choose pets with minimal dander or shedding
- Clean and dust regularly
- Don’t allow mold or mildew to grow
An air filter shouldn’t do the heavy lifting to purify the air in your home. A well-rounded approach with the best filters can improve your indoor air quality and how you deal with allergy season.
6. The Right Filters Improve Efficiency
When cheap filters fail to keep particles out of your HVAC system, it struggles to operate efficiently. Higher MERV-rated filters help improve the air quality in your home, and your HVAC system.
When your HVAC system functions more efficiently, you’ll benefit from lower energy costs. You’ll also help extend the life of your HVAC system.
7. Better Filters Create a Whole-House Filtration System
If you suffer from severe allergies, you might consider installing a whole-house filtration system—but it could be unnecessary.
Spending a little more on quality air filters could have the same effect as investing in a secondary filtration system throughout your home. When you choose better filters with a MERV rating of at least eleven, you help manage your allergic reactions—and you’ve upgraded your HVAC system into a whole-house filtration system!
8. It’s More Than a Replacement Part
When you think of your air filters as more than “just” a replacement part for your HVAC or furnace system, you understand the value a filter has on your daily life.
If improving your quality of life throughout allergy season is as simple as choosing the right air filter, it becomes a part of your health and wellness plan. There’s no need to suffer from airborne allergens when your current HVAC system paired with the best air filter can help reduce your discomfort!
9. Quality Is Better Than Quantity
Replacing cheap filters more frequently will not achieve the better air quality you need. Plus, you’ll likely spend more when frequently changing cheap filters compared to investing in better quality filters that last longer.
Quality filters are more effective at removing harmful allergens from your indoor air, and they can last as long as three months before replacing them.
Shop Online for Quality Air Filters for Allergies
If you’re searching for the perfect air filter for your home, the AIRx Allergy Filter is perfect for reducing allergens and maintaining superior airflow in your HVAC system. These filters are made in the USA and ship to your door for free. Find your size today!
