This is What Happens When You Have a Clogged Furnace Filter

This is What Happens When You Have a Clogged Furnace Filter

Your furnace filter probably doesn’t end up at the forefront of your mind very often. Most homes have their furnaces stashed away in an innocuous corner where it remains effectively out of sight. This makes it easy to forget about, even though you should be doing everything you can to remember that it is there and needs routine care to work properly. This is true of any filter you could have in your house. Like an air conditioner’s filter, a furnace’s air filter can become clogged.

This is actually a pretty big deal. If you don’t know why that is, read on to understand the potential harm that can come from not replacing your furnace filter when necessary.

A Clogged Filter Drives Up Your Energy Bill

When any HVAC appliance’s filter becomes clogged, it makes it harder for the appliance to do what it needs to do. To function at all in the way that the device is designed to, it must withdraw additional energy from electricity to force the air through the mechanics of the appliance. This means bigger heating bills when winter comes around.

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You Can’t Get Any Heat

If the filters of the furnace are full of debris, this causes the heat to rise inside of the furnace, thus triggering the systems inside of the furnace that automatically turn it off when it reaches a certain temperature. The heat will remain trapped in the heat exchanger, rather than exiting through the HVAC system and warming your home or office.

The Pressure Inside the System Changes

When a furnace air filter is heavily clogged, the amount of pressure inside of the furnace changes as a result of the diminished airflow.

A Clogged Filter Stops Trapping Airborne Debris

One of the main purposes of an HVAC filter is to keep debris, dirt, dust, pollen and other nasty particles out of your HVAC system and out of the air you breathe. A healthy filtration system is essential for the wellbeing of allergy sufferers and those with respiratory ailments that benefit the most from the cleanest air possible. It is imperative to change the furnace filter but you need to know the right size, whether it is 10x10x1 MERV 13 furnace filter or whether it is 10x10x1 MERV 8 furnace filter etc.

Things Can Break

Trying to use something that needs maintenance repeatedly can only do more harm to the device. As time progresses, the air filter of your furnace can become incredibly clogged, thus greatly limiting or even eliminating airflow inside the HVAC system. The limiter switch as a part of the heat exchanger system can remain stuck in one position if the heat exchanger becomes overheated due to poor circulation via the air filter. This requires a professional to replace the broken component. The furnace itself can break when neglected for far too long.

As you can see, the side effects of a clogged air filter range from annoying, to dangerous, to expensive. It’s not worth the headache and the cost of living with a clogged air filter, not when replacing a furnace air filter is rather inexpensive. It’s certainly less expensive than buying a new furnace, and it’s healthier than living with a clogged furnace filter.

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