In today’s world, HVAC units have become a necessity in our households and work spaces. No matter what the seasons are, survival without proper cooling or heating is almost impossible. Many people have this dream that they would have their own home, own shelter to live under. Nowadays, having your own home, buying resources for it, is the biggest financial investment you would be making. It would be your sanctuary and later on passed on to your children, taking care for it and keeping it in the best livable condition is the key here.
Being comfortable in one’s own home is everyone’s priority, and when we talk about air filters they seem to have a very direct relationship between your comfort and the house. May it be central cooling/heating systems or just air conditioners, all of them are comprised of air filters. These air filters protect the HVAC units from foreign particles and further augment their performance, if you compare a unit with a polluted air filter with that unit comprising of a cleaned filter, the performance would vary on many levels.
If you sense that your unit’s air filters are damaged or need some cleaning then you should go with this decision ASAP. Changing them is one of the easiest procedures, but if you delay this process then the results could be catastrophic.
Here are some of the ways through these dirty air filters mess with your HVAC units and even your health.
The Bills Could and Will Skyrocket
As we are familiar with HVAC equipment, we know that for the best performance they rely on air recirculation. A steady and clean supply of air would make the operations much easier and your cooling system won’t even have to over-emphasize on performance. May it be central cooling systems or air conditioners, all of them are comprised with air filters.
When these air filters are polluted with foreign particles such as dust or pebbles, it becomes really hard to operate normally. Now what does this situation actually mean for your systems, this means that your systems would have to choke up performance and there would be more struggles involved.
Think of the situation as this, your cooling systems are polluted and they are struggling to keep your house cold by pulling out as much cold air as they can. This makes them very ineffective and inefficient as they operating with dirty filters, conclusively this would increase your electricity bills as the units are requiring more power. Now unless you clean those filters, you would be looking at very expensive electricity bills to pay.
Coil Problems Could Arise
As we have previously discussed that cooling systems need the circulation of air to operate properly and if they don’t, their functions would be sabotaged. The main situation which occurs here- when there is no proper air circulation, there would be no kind of air getting into the coils or the evaporating component. When this happens, the coils will get frozen because there is no airflow, condensation would take place and the coils would get frozen.
As the coils get frozen up, it becomes comparatively very difficult for the unit to absorb the heat from the environment and convert it into cold air. So you know what this means, no comfort of cold air inside your homes when this happens.
When there is no air circulation, the coils could not just get frozen but also polluted with bacteria. Think of air as the condenser to the coils, which would just clean away all the foreign particles but when this doesn’t happen, different types of mold and bacteria just starts getting attached to the coils.
Another function that your air conditioner does apart from cooling down your house is removing the moisture from the environment. When the air filters are polluted, this process proves to be unbearably difficult. It could even lead to your unit being overheated, which would make the other operations hard to perform too.
The evaporator inside these units are very important and helps keep them in working order, when the air filters get clogged, the evaporator gets contaminated and becomes a breeding ground for all kinds of dangerous microorganisms.
Fans Could Break Off
Air conditioners and cooling units have high performance blower fans inside them, when the electrical current is passed through them, they blow out cold air. As the air filters get polluted and clogged, pumping out air from these fans gets extremely difficult.
You cannot pass air through something which has been completely blocked with foreign particles, so those fans then require more energy to get through the filters. This ultimately increases the pressure which results in increased energy consumption.
This struggle that the blower fans go through is directly equivalent to increased energy bills, another thing that you would be facing is uneven hot/cold spots inside your spots. This would be because some areas are being cooled while some are not and trust us, this would be a great discomfort for you and your family.
If you don’t look into this problem very soon then, due to the increased pressure on these blower fans the motor could overheat and burn. So because of just the dirty air filters you would have to either change the blower motor or replace the whole air conditioner unit.
Discomfort For You And Your Family
We have made clear through our guide that a dirty and clogged air filter won’t just be affecting your air conditioner unit but also making problems for you and your family. There would be hot/cold spots around the house which could disrupt the comfort zone.
The kind of air pumped in from the air conditioner would be very poor due to the clogged filters, as the quality would be bad this could lead to health problems for the family. If you happen to have pollen-sensitive people inside the household then this situation could even turn out dangerous, as they could have an affection from that contaminated air.
Conclusion
Having a dirty air filter inside your air conditioner not just results in performance issues for your unit but could prove to be dangerous for you and your family. At the slight notice of this problem, replace the air filters or if the situation becomes critical then be sure to call in the HVAC technicians at the earliest.
