Electronic Furnace Filters

You may be mistaken if your think your air conditioning or furnace filter controls the temperatures in our homes. A clean filter will also affect the temperature of the home and continuous exposure to poor quality air that carries dust and spores will lead to poor conditions for the occupations of the building. Generally a good running furnace will use an electronic furnace filter. These types of filters will remove 95% of dust and spores from the air by using electrical charges. The electronic filter furnace is installed in between the furnace and the air ducts.

The air we breathe in our home will first travel though the furnace system and it carries millions of particles within it. When it I drawn into the furnace it goes though the electronic filter and will trap the majority of the dust and spores. Any particles that pass though the pre filter are given a positive charge and collection plates will attract these particles.

There are two types of electronic filters, electrostatic precipitators and charged media filters. The big difference between the two types of furnace filters are electrostatic precipitators collect the charged particles on plates and charged media filters will collect the particle on fibres.

Electrostatic precipitators are more efficient than the other type of furnace filters due to the particles being charged and having more efficiency in collection. The electrostatic precipitators will generate around 20,000 volts to give the particles the positive charge.

To help determine the efficiency of the electronic furnace filters there are two tests we can conduct, namely weight arrestance test and the atmospheric dust spot test.

In the weight arrestance test the test is based on the weight of particles collected but this is not good to judge for the small dust particles which can easily be inhaled.

The atmospheric dust-spot test will determine the filter's ability to capture particles between 0.3 and 6 microns.

No matter which test we use the important thing is too ensure you regularly clean the electronic furnace filters at least once a month.