HVAC drama

This post is brought to you by my friend, Kelli, a homeowner in the state to the south :) This is her first of 3 blog posts about her learning experiences with HVAC systems. This is useful information that I wouldn't have been able to share with you b/c I have a furnace/AC set-up, which Kelli describes below.

In the past few weeks, I've discovered that I have severely neglected one of the largest and most expensive parts of my home - my HVAC system, made of a heat pump and an air handler, or what is called a split system. For those of you who don't know, a heat pump is a machine that heats your house in the winter and cools it in the summer.  The air is pushed through the ducts and through an air handler, which cools or heats the air as it goes over a compressor coil ( aka the big expensive part). (Some of you may have furnaces which run on gas - you'd know this because you get a separate bill for gas from your electric bill. You also were probably warned about it from your home inspector.)

As a new home owner, I sort of knew I was supposed to change the filters in my house - I knew these were done when I moved in - but had no idea that otherwise my system needed to be inspected twice per year by HVAC specialists! In part, I didn't know this because my dad is my go-to handyman and he takes care of a lot of that stuff himself, and we never talked about it. Even when my sister mentioned having her system inspected recently, it just didn't click that I needed to do that, too! Silly me.

Two questions for you homeowners:
1) When is the last time you had someone provide regular maintenance and cleaning of your HVAC system? If you don't remember, schedule a tune up! Its much like getting an oil change on your car in terms of preventative maintenance! I haven't done this at all in my house and have no idea when it was done last, and now I have a leak in my system which could have been prevented or detected earlier if I'd had the "check up" done. More on that in a later post!
2)  When is the last time you changed your air filters in your return air handlers? (Most people have these unless they have a fancy filter like a media filter or an electrostatic filter inside/connected to their air handler - which requires some different maintenance.) It's recommended that you change these monthly or bimonthly so you keep good indoor air quality that you're breathing in, and you keep dust and other particles out of the HVAC system so it stays clean!

Here's what my air filters looked like after (gasp!) a year of not being changed:

What once was white...

It was super easy for me to change them. I went to Lowe's since it is right next door and bought 2 for $16 total. I purchased the mid-grade of filters (not the $1 ones but not the $16 each ones either) which have a semi-pleated look. My dad suggested that size, and the contractors I've spoken to says its the best plan. The $16 ones don't really do much more than the $8 ones (even though they claim to help with allergies) but instead can actually limit the air circulating through your house and make it work harder. The $1 do help, but don't filter out the smaller particles that the mid-range ones can catch. One contractor I've spoken to says buy these in bulk and change them monthly to help keep your system working well. Others say every 2 months or even every 3 months.  My return air handlers and my vents are all on the ceilings, which is good news in that dust and dog hair don't get as easily into those systems as if they were on the floor. Just a few things to keep in mind.