Choosing Your MERV Filter: Do It By The Numbers
Furnace filters are used to remove particles from indoor air. Breathing in dust, dander, pollen and more can aggravate allergies and asthma. In Florida, when humidity or heat requires people to stay indoors, proper air circulation is important to ensure clean and healthy air. That’s why furnace filters are key to your home comfort.
Furnace filters are rated according to the minimum efficiency reporting value scale, or MERV. This scale is based off the size of the particles that each filter can trap. A dust particle that we find in our home that we can see is about 10 microns, while particles not visible to the naked eye are rated at 0.3 microns.
A MERV rating of 1 to 4 represents a poor-quality filter that won’t be able to trap too many particles from the air. A filter that is rated 5 to 8 is typically used in a commercial setting but will do an appropriate job for residential homes. A filter that is rated 9 and above is the best filter to purchase and will trap the majority of particles in the air, as small as 1 micron in size.
Filter efficiency is also calculated based on the thickness of a filter as well as the thickness of each individual fiber that makes up the filter. A thicker filter will be able to trap more particles than a thinner one.
Contact Symbiont Service Corp. for more information on choosing a furnace filter for your home. Focusing on the MERV scale will allow you to make a purchase that is in the best interest of your family’s health as well as the best interest of your furnace.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about MERV filters and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Symbiont Service Corp. serves Englewood, Florida and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!
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