Can we freshen our air?
May 11, 2022 9:56 AM Subscribe
Our new condo does not appear to have filters for the HVAC. Should it?
The building we moved into has a central HVAC system for the whole building. There's one air intake in our unit and several outflow vents, none of which have filters. I am not used to this; our last couple places have had central air in the house/unit that I maintained and regularly changed the filters in.
Is the fact that our current setup is filterless normal for this type of HVAC? I assume there's filtering done in the central unit (on the roof), but of course that is not something I am able to verify/maintain other than by asking the building maintenance folks.
I ask because our place is suuuuuuuuper dusty; our old place wasn't pristine, but there's exponentially more dust in this place than in that one, and I don't know whether that's due to the lack of filtering or some other externality. The airflow is good, the heat works great (haven't had to use the AC yet thanks to a legendarily wet Portland spring), so I'm not worried about the overall functionality of the system, just the level of dust I'm seeing.
I can and will take more/more frequent cleaning steps to help minimize the level of dust, for sure, but I wonder if my first step is to put a filter in our vent system somewhere that maybe should have one.
The building we moved into has a central HVAC system for the whole building. There's one air intake in our unit and several outflow vents, none of which have filters. I am not used to this; our last couple places have had central air in the house/unit that I maintained and regularly changed the filters in.
Is the fact that our current setup is filterless normal for this type of HVAC? I assume there's filtering done in the central unit (on the roof), but of course that is not something I am able to verify/maintain other than by asking the building maintenance folks.
I ask because our place is suuuuuuuuper dusty; our old place wasn't pristine, but there's exponentially more dust in this place than in that one, and I don't know whether that's due to the lack of filtering or some other externality. The airflow is good, the heat works great (haven't had to use the AC yet thanks to a legendarily wet Portland spring), so I'm not worried about the overall functionality of the system, just the level of dust I'm seeing.
I can and will take more/more frequent cleaning steps to help minimize the level of dust, for sure, but I wonder if my first step is to put a filter in our vent system somewhere that maybe should have one.
« Older Things to do when you are restless | Work is interesting but very draining. Should I... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Most hvac filters where people don't care (often as low as MERV 8) are pretty marginal for fine dust allowing a lot to pass through.
posted by Mitheral at 11:48 AM on May 11, 2022