HVAC specialist Derek Cole explains why air filter maintenance matters. A clean filter saves 5-15% on energy costs, but homeowners often choose the wrong MERV rating, restricting airflow or failing to capture particles. Check your filter weekly during summer and pick one that matches your system's capacity.
What's up everyone, Derek Cole here with Simmons and, um, yes, I'm on my front porch. It is a Sunday. I am wearing my UNCP football shirt, um, but I want to talk real quick about one of the 5 secrets to help prevent a breakdown. I've gone over a few secrets in the last few weeks. Another one is my, you know, one of my favorite topics because you guys that follow along or follow us at Simmons, you know, I talk about this a lot. You've seen it a lot. It is checking and changing your air filter. Something Energy Star, not me. Energy Star. They state it's one of the most important things you can do for your system yourself because you don't need a professional, you don't need to call a contractor. It's something you can do yourself for your system. And they say just by changing and checking your filter A clean filter, it can save you 5 to 15% on energy costs. So that by itself tells you how important it is. But the problem is, even if you want— even if you think about it, even if you want to, you put a thing in your phone, an alarm to remind you every 30 days You know, check or change my air filter every third— you're obsessed. The problem you could fall into is when you go to Walmart or go to Lowe's or go to Home Depot, there's so many choices. Which air filter do I get? So that's the next, the next question we get is, okay, I want to do it. But there's so many options, which one? Well, there's usually two types of homeowners we run into. It's the homeowner with the filter that is too tight. They bought the algae filter, a really good MERV 13 filter, and it's too much. It's too much for the unit. And then you have the homeowner that bought a filter and it's barely standing in the filter grill with the unit on. It's barely— it's so loose it's not stopping much of anything. If it's stopping pet hair, it's amazing. That's how loose the filter is. So you have to find a happy medium between the two. You can't have one that's too tight. You know, the unit's on, you open the filter rack, and the filter is like sucked in, and all four corners are, are coming in on it because it's so tight. The unit can't breathe. It's doing that because the unit is trying to breathe and can't breathe because the filter is so tight it's not letting it breathe. So it's sucking in the corners, so sucking in air from the crawlspace and from the attic and, and from around the filter, it's not doing a good job because it's getting the air— it's going to get the air it needs, but you want to control it. You want to be the filtered clean air that comes through your filter, not, not there that's in the crawlspace or in the attic or outside because the unit can't breathe. And then, you know, with the filter that's, that's too loose, uh, it's not stopping the particles it needs to stop to protect the unit. So that as well is the problem. So you got to find the medium, you got to find which one works, which one's not too loose, which one's not too tight. Now, when we come to a service and do a cleaning, do a check of your system, you that is a great time to ask that question. Which filter do I need? Uh, which filter can this duct system, this home handle? Um, and if you have been through the Healthy Home Challenge, uh, it's a 5-day free challenge. Uh, just go to Simmons1Air.com. It's right beside or right under the, uh, the 5 Secrets tab. Um, but that will help, help you because we're getting into filtration, air cleaning, duct systems. That'll also help you. And again, it's free 5-day access. But, um, that's something very, very important for you to go watch if you haven't been a part of that. It's 5 videos, 5 worksheets, Daily emails from me, uh, on day 3, when Skipper goes deep into duct systems, duct cleaning, duct sealing. Um, so it's good stuff, check it out. But, uh, to get back to air filters, um, it's something very, very important, especially when it gets hotter outside and the unit has a longer runtime. It's important to keep checking that filter. Actually, this time of year, I would probably do it— I would probably do it every week, check the filter to make sure it's clean, there are no problems. Because the run times, when it gets, you know, 90, 95 degrees outside, the run times get very, very, uh, long. Uh, so the unit's running a lot and should be changing a lot of air, so it's a good idea to keep an eye on that filter. But, uh, one of the 5 secrets: check and change your air filter. Go to simmons1hr.com, click on the 5 Secrets link, download your copy. It's free. You can download it, save it, print it, uh, whatever you like to do. You'll get an email from me as well, Suzanne, Here's your link, uh, so you can also download it from there. But if you have any questions, just reply back to that email. Uh, it comes right to me and I'll be happy to answer any questions.
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