Have You Checked Your Furnace Filter Lately?

Your forced-air oil-fired furnace just logged a marathon heating season, keeping your family comfortable through a full winter and a cool, expanded spring that has stretched beyond Memorial Day.

But think back: how often did you pay back that hard work with a fresh air filter?

Most of us don’t do this simple heating system maintenance task nearly often enough: although many factors influence the frequency with which you should change your furnace filter – how air tight your building is and whether you have fur-bearing pets, to name two – a filter should typically be changed every one to three months.

You may wonder if changing an air filter that often is overkill – after all, your furnace will run just fine with the older filter in place, won’t it?

Actually, it won’t.

When you run your oil-fired furnace with a filter clogged by dust, fur, and other particles, you can expect to experience:

• Lower indoor air quality – Leaving a dirty filter in place could allow unfiltered air to bypass the filter, introducing pollutants into the ductwork and, eventually, into your home.
• Higher bills – When you don’t replace your HVAC system’s filters, you could find yourself paying more for less comfort. That’s because forcing air through a dirty filter requires more energy than pushing it through a clean filter – energy that you pay for with higher bills and diminished airflow.
• More frequent problems – A dirty filter causes your heating system to overwork, which could lead to big problems down the road: simply put, the more strain you put on your heater, the more likely it is to break down or even fail completely in the future.

The good news is that furnace air filters are relatively inexpensive to replace – something that can be done in just minutes without much technical skill or background in HVAC repairs.

Replacing your air filter is just one of the tasks our technicians will tackle when they perform annual preventative maintenance on your heating equipment. Contact us today to learn more about our expert Heating Oil Service Plans and what sets Vaughn Oil apart from the crowd!