Changing Your Air Filter: How to Remember

Changing the air filter is one of the few air conditioner maintenance tasks that falls under the “do-it-yourself” category. Most A/C maintenance should be handled during the annual checkup performed by a qualified HVAC field technician. Although changing the air filter is quick and simple, it’s also the single most important thing you can do to ensure you get the performance and efficiency your system was designed to deliver. Proper airflow affects almost all functions of the cooling system and a dirty filter chokes the system, decreasing comfort and increasing operating costs.

Changing the air filter should be done monthly, throughout the cooling season. There’s no reason not to: quality air filters purchased in multi-packs at home centers and big box stores are economical. The procedure only takes a few minutes. The benefits last all summer. The only possible drawback? Remembering to get it done. Your life is busy, already. Here are a few ideas to give yourself a monthly reminder:

• Add an alarm to your smartphone. Pick any day of the month and set the alarm to recur monthly on that day.
• Select a day when you already have a to-do list of other recurrent monthly household tasks and add changing the filter to that list.
• If you don’t have a programmable thermostat, consider investing in a Wi-Fi-enabled model that connects to your home network. Not only does it allow you to monitor household temperatures and input changes remotely from any internet connection, you can set most models to email or text reminders to perform regular maintenance like changing the air filter.
• Mark the filters. Use a sharpie or other permanent marker to label the edge of each filter in the box with a designated month. Then keep the box of filters in a conspicuous location where you’ll see it on a regular basis.

Changing the air filter is an easy DIY process. If you don’t know how, contact the HVAC experts at C.R. Wolfe Heating & Air Conditioning. They’ll be happy to show you how and also handle the annual system checkup that needs the professional touch.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Middletown, New York about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about changing your air filter and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 845-367-4482.

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