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We have a gas furnace, no pilot, electronic ignition. For about 1/2 the year, the furnace stays off -- turned off. It's warm enough we don't need it. If it gets cool enough, out come quilts and afghans.
When the weather changes, I change the 90 day filter and turn it on. Three months later I change the filter... and then the furnace gets turned off before I need to change it again.
A friend insists that even if the furnace is off I have to change the filter. I don't get it -- it's OFF. It isn't an A/C unit, too, and the fan application of the furnace isn't used at all. It's off at the thermostat, which I control. So it's 100% completely off.
He insists even if it's off, it isn't off and the filters need changed.
When I google for an answer, all I get is how to change a filter and how often -- which I can see if the thing is RUNNING....
That seems very weird to me.
I have lived in climates where my furnace gets used for a good 7-8 months out of the year for 28 years and have absolutely never heard of this, what's his reasoning?
Every year or three I have a furnace company check mine over for issues and leaks, and I replace the filter in fall and usually also in mid winter, so twice a year.
Cant think of a single reason I would replace my furnace filter in August when the darn thing has been off since May and won't get turned on again in September or October.
That's what I think, but he's telling me the furnace is still circulating air, even if I turn it off. Keep in mind -- he's not a HVAC guy, he's just a guy with a heater, like me.
If I were paying 50 cents a filter, I would probably do it, but I have to have my filters custom made because we used an old floor furnace grrate as our cold air return and it's not a normal size (13x24). And I bought better filters because I have cold weather asthma and one of my cats has asthma, too. So I don't want to change them unless I have to.
No you don't need to change your filter if you are not using the furnace (and don't have central A/C)!
The filter only gets dirty if the fan is running - circulating air through the filter.
And at that, if you live in an exceptionally clean area (little dust, no dogs, etc.), then you would need to change it less frequently when it is running. A more dirty area, dogs, cats, dusty, etc., then need to change it more frequently.
Basically you can look at it and see if it is dirty or not. A common sense thing!
As for your friend, ask him if you also need to wash your towels if they are sitting in the cabinet and not being used?
That's what I think, but he's telling me the furnace is still circulating air, even if I turn it off. Keep in mind -- he's not a HVAC guy, he's just a guy with a heater, like me.
It can do that but you'd have to turn the fan on, there is usually a setting on the thermostat for fan. For example if you had wood pellet stove in one room and the furnace had an outlet duct in that room. If you turn the fan on you can force air into the room and better circulate the heat the pellet stove is producing.
Changing the filter is great, but you sure don't need to during the months where you're not even running the fan. And it won't hurt leaving the "dirty" one in there at the end of the heating season. Your pattern makes perfect sense to me.
Does he, by chance, work for a filter company??? :-)
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