How Often Should I Change My Air Filter at Home?

The indoor air quality within your home plays a big role in the health and comfort you and your family experience. Old and dirty air filters will cause a spike in your utility bills as well as increase future maintenance issues.

For both of these reasons, it’s important to change your air filters regularly. However, you may be wondering, “how often should I change my air filter at home?” The answer is: it depends.

A number of factors determine when you need to replace your air filter, including:

• Air filter model
• General indoor air quality
• Number of pets
• Household size
• Whether family members smoke inside
• Family members with allergies
• Air pollution levels in your location

Let’s discuss some general rules and guidelines when it comes to changing the air filter in your home’s HVAC system.

Signs You Need to Change Your Home Air Filter

Whether it’s from your heating or cooling system, all of the air that flows into your house will eventually pass through the air filter. For this reason, it’s essential to swap out dirty air filters regularly. Old and clogged air filters will:

• Cause fans to work harder because of reduced airflow inside the HVAC system
• Ineffectively remove contaminants and pollutants
• Cause HVAC equipment to develop efficiency-reducing damage
• Accumulate contaminants in your ductwork

Increased energy bills, excess dust, and reduced airflow are all common signs that it’s time to swap in a home air filter replacement. We recommend that you inspect your air filters once a month. If you find that they are dirty, make sure to change them out for a clean air filter.

However, most homeowners don’t know how to change the air conditioner filter in their house. For this reason, it’s important to contact your local HVAC company. This way, you can learn how to change an air filter properly and which type of air filter is most optimal for your HVAC system.

How Often To Replace Air Filter

If you are using budget-friendly fiberglass filters, we recommend changing them every 30 days. On the other hand, pleated filters offer a higher quality filtration solution than fiberglass filters and should be changed every 3 to 6 months.

As a general rule of thumb, you should replace pleated air filters in your house every 90 days. The longer your air filter goes unchanged, the more dust, allergens, and dirt it will accumulate. There are several factors that will change how often you change air filters:

Does Anyone in Your Home Experience Allergies or Asthma?

Your home’s indoor air quality can be even worse than the air outdoors if your filters and ductwork are dirty. Additionally, allergy and asthma sufferers are more prone to symptoms when faced with airborne contaminants. 

For this reason, it’s important to change your air filters every 4 to 6 weeks if anyone in your home has allergies or asthma.

Do You Have Any Pets?

If you have a cat or dog, you understand how much your pet sheds during the change of seasons. Stray hairs and dust from their fur can accumulate in your air filters quickly. For this reason, you should change your pleated air filter every two months if you’re a pet owner.

Do You Have Younger Children?

It’s vital to provide clean and healthy air to your children. As such, we recommend replacing your air filter every 2 to 3 months if there are younger children in your home.

Check Your Air Filter Packaging

Another great way to determine whether you should change the air filter in your apartment or home is by looking at the air filter’s installation instructions. If you’re wondering how often do you change an air filter, check the packaging your air filter came in. Manufacturers typically recommend changing them every 30, 60, or 90 days. 

However, if you can’t find the packaging or need help, contact your local HVAC professionals to determine the lifespan of your air filter.

Factors That Can Affect the Lifespan of Your Air Filter

Several things can change your filters’ lifespans, including:

Your Heating and Cooling System Usage

If you’re based in a mild climate and only use your furnace or AC for a few hours every day, one filter can last several months. On the other hand, if you’re running your HVAC system continuously in the summer, you should change your AC filter in your house every few weeks.

If you live in a cold environment, we recommend changing your furnace filter in summer. This way, your HVAC system will run smoothly when the colder fall and winter seasons arrive.

Your Home’s Size

You may be wondering, “how many air filters does a house have?” The answer is: it depends. 

Larger homes will typically have multiple air filters that need to be changed regularly since it takes more air to service a large space. Smaller homes may only have a single air filter that won’t need to be changed as much. Most smaller homes require less air circulation to reach their desired temperatures.

Contact the Experts at TSS Home Comfort Today

At TSS Home Comfort, we are a professional Boise heating and air company specializing in keeping your home safe and efficient. Our air filter experts will gladly examine your home and make recommendations regarding what air filters to use and how often to replace them.

Contact us online to schedule an appointment today.