4 HVAC Tips For Pet Owners
October 15th, 2018 by cverdone
Having pets is great. They keep you company and improve your mood. Plus, they help to teach your children about responsibility and discipline. For those who are ill or impaired, they have service animals to assist them in their conditions.
Unfortunately, your furry friends may also affect your HVAC system. Their presence means more particles that can travel through your system. It can be harmful to both your family and your equipment.
Upgrade Your Filters
There is such a thing as dander, which are flakes of skin that sheds from an animal. These things can contaminate the air and can stay airborne for hours. Your system can also pick them up and send them through the house. Filters can keep them out. You can’t use any filter though.
Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) is a class of filters. It shows how effective they are in capturing dirt, dust, and debris. The lowest and least capable would have a MERV rating of 1. The best would have a MERV rating of 20. Those with a high MERV rating are in medical settings or manufacturing facilities.
The least you can have, to cater to animals, would be a grade of 8. Lower than that and it might not perform so well. Your hardware must be powerful enough to accommodate your high rated filters.
Change Filters Often
Having pets increases the number of particles in your home. Your filters will reach its limit faster than average. The more creatures you have, the more frequent you’ll be changing them. A dog or cat means you have an interval of 60 days for every replacement. If you have more than one pet that time could reduce to 20 to 45 days.
Don’t ignore this because filters that have reached their threshold can damage your HVAC in the long run. You could regret it as you’ll be having repeated repairs instead of filter changes. So be wise with what you want.
Take Care Of Your Pets
Proper care of your pets keeps them healthy and happy, and also reduces the number of skin flakes that they shed. Make sure you feed them nutritious food.
Grooming is also much more than keeping their coat in good shape. It also reduces the pet dander and takes out ones that are loose before they invade your living space. See to it that you do this outside of your home.
Regular Maintenance And Cleaning
With or without a pet, this is still a vital part of keeping your heating and cooling system in good shape. Having pets makes this even more important to do. Make sure you schedule your routine maintenance and cleaning session with a professional. Book them early to avoid having to compete with other clients during peak season.
There’s nothing wrong with having an extra member to the family. See to it that you secure the quality of your HVAC even with them around. Remember that those who enjoy your system will be your pets and loved ones anyway. Regular servicing is the first step. Schedule it with a trusted company like Thornton Heating. Call us at (847) 905-1608, and we’d be happy to help.