Most commonly indoor air filtration is referred to as a "Furnace Filter" but in fact almost all filters can be used in both air conditioners and furnaces. Replacing these filters is one of the best things you can do to improve the indoor air quality in your home or workplace...and most people forget to do it. In America indoor air quality or IAQ ranks among the top 5 environmental risks to public heath and levels of air pollution inside the home can be two to fives times higher than outdoor levels, this comes directly from the Environmental Protection Agency. This is only one of the reasons you need to change your furnace filters on a regular basis, it is recommended that your furnace filter be changed every 30 to 90 days depending on the type of filter in your system. For instance a pleated furnace filter should be changed every 90 days, this includes many of the common brands like 3M Filtrete and Naturalaire filters by Flanders Precisionaire. While basic filters also referred to as fiberglass filters should be changed every 30 days and are not designed to protect the air in your home or workplace, only to protect the furnace or air conditioner they are installed in. An added benefit of changing your furnace filter on a regular basis is that your system will run much more efficiently saving you money. When a filter gets backed up with clogging particles it forces your furnace or air conditioner to run harder, when this happens it not only costs you more money to run the system but you can also cause damage that can be expensive to have repaired.

 

With so many furnace filters to choose from it can be confusing trying to figure out what filter best suites your needs, and how to tell what furnace filters may be better than others. This is where the MERV rating comes into play, this term is an abbreviation for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value. Most of the furnace filters we carry range from a MERV rating of 4 to 12. The higher the rating the more efficient the filter will be at capturing particles in your air.