Are you looking to improve the performance of your air conditioner and your indoor air quality, as well as reduce your energy costs? If so, you should consider ways in which you can increase your air-filter efficiency. Choosing the right air filter for your home isn’t hard. However, it is important to understand several key factors that impact how you can increase air-filter efficiency.
A filter’s MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) rating is a valuable metric to consider. However, there are others that you should consider, including a filter’s resistance or pressure drop, and its dust-holding capacity and dust-spot efficiency.
A filter’s resistance, or pressure drop, indicates the impact that a given filter has on an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system’s airflow. To increase air-filter efficiency, select a filter with a lower pressure drop. Filters with lower pressure drops have less resistance, which increases airflow and helps your air conditioner operate more efficiently.
Dust-holding capacity is closely related to pressure drop. This metric indicates how much dust a filter can hold at a specific pressure-drop point. To compare the relative dust-holding capacities of different air filters, be sure to look at products with similar or identical pressure-drop ratings. However, keep in mind that your filter’s pressure-drop performance will decrease as dust accumulates in the filter. To maintain optimal performance, it’s vital to clean or change your air filter every six to eight weeks.
Finally, dust-spot efficiency is a measurement of how well a given filter removes large particles of dust from the air under controlled test conditions. The greater a filter’s dust-spot efficiency, the better your air quality will be.
Also, you should know that filter efficiency is also rated in two ways. Initial efficiency indicates the filter’s effectiveness when it is new, and sustained efficiency indicates the average effectiveness that it maintains during its lifespan.
If you have questions about how to increase air-filter efficiency, or if you have any other home-comfort concerns, please contact us at Roth Home & Cooling. We’ve proudly served residential and commercial customers throughout the Portland area since 1976.