Can a Furnace Filter Installed Improperly Spike Gas Bills?

Filter

• As their name implies, filters serve one primary purpose – to filter out dirt, lint and debris spewed by the furnace’s blower. This debris is trapped via the fibers in the filter’s screen to prevent them from entering the home. For those with dust allergies, this reduces the amount of allergens in the air. In relation to home heating costs however, filters allow for a more efficient and unhindered airflow. A dirty filter causes the furnace to strain to push out air that the home’s thermostat can’t detect, thus it continues to signal the unit to push out more heat. This burns through more oil, thus increasing the cost of heating the home.

Improper Installation

• Dirty filters cause the furnace to use more oil, as do filters that haven’t been properly installed in the home’s wall vents. Besides blowing out air contaminated with allergens, the furnace will continue to push air into the filter that won’t make it out into the home. This reduces the amount of warm air coming out of the vent and instead pushes air back down to the furnace. This thermostat will continue to “ask” the furnace for more heat, thus burning up more oil.

Proper Installation

• The easiest way around the issue is to install filters properly. If you don’t know how, doing so is a relatively simple procedure nearly anyone can do. First, you locate the vent in the home; usually these are rectangular or square vents in floor or in the lower portion of a wall located somewhere near a main room. Pop the tabs or slide the lever down to open the vent cover then line up the filter with the inside of the cover and close it.

Change It Up

• Not only does a properly installed filter contribute to lower heating costs and a more efficient furnace energy-wise, but changing the filter on a regular basis can reduce monthly heating costs by as much as 25 percent. Old filters should be swapped out once a year with an appropriately sized filter.