DEAR TIM: My seven-year old home is very dusty. After
placing small filters on the bottom of each heating vent diffuser in all of the
rooms of my house, I wonder if I made a mistake. Will these hurt the performance
of my furnace and air conditioner? I have a standard vacuum cleaner and use it
every day, but I still have dust problems. What is causing the dust? What can I
do to minimize dust? Patti C., Lancaster PA
DEAR PATTI: Oh how I wish my editors would give me more room
for this answer! Dust control is a very complicated subject and there are
numerous ways to capture and control the pesky particles that are the source of
your frustration.
Let's first talk about dust cleanup. Based upon my own testing and years of
trying different vacuum cleaners, I have come to the solid conclusion that
central vacuums are the best tool to use to vacuum dust. These machines take the
dust and dirt and place it in a cannister or a bag that is often in a garage or
basement. Any dust that makes it past the bag or cannister is ejected
outdoors.
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| This electrostatic air filter does a superb job of capturing a high percentage of dust in the average home. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter |
Traditional vacuum cleaners like the one you use, exhaust
the air inside the room while you are cleaning. Even if you have a great dirt
and dust filter bag as part of the vacuum cleaner, some dust may sneak past
other parts in the machine and get blasted back into the air. On a sunny day you
can often see this dust storm as you vacuum in a room that has sun beams
streaming through windows.
Dust on flat and vertical surfaces needs to be wiped off with a damp rag with
water or a dust collection liquid. If you use a traditional duster tool, you
just broadcast the dust into the air and it will settle back down on the
surfaces hours later.
The filters you placed in your heating and cooling vents may hurt the
performance of your heating and cooling equipment. The powerful fans that move
air through furnaces and air conditioners are designed to do so with minimal
resistance to air flow. The filters you installed no doubt are offering some
resistance to air flow. Just before you installed them, your system might
already have been at the upper allowable threshold for airflow resistance.
The reason adequate air movement within the furnace and air conditioner is so
important is simple: In the winter when heating your home, the air must move
past the heat exchanger at a given speed to pull off heat; in the summer when
cooling your home, the air must be able to readily flow over the
air-conditioning coil, where its heat is deposited. If the speed starts to
decrease and your system is not designed to sense this change, then efficiency
and performance can drop.
I would consult with a seasoned heating and cooling professional about the
filters you installed. This craftsman will have special tools and meters that
tell him if the static pressure within your system is too high. Static pressure
is a measurement of airflow resistance.
If the heating professional tells you to remove the filters from the vents, I
recommend that you consider installing a washable electrostatic air filter in
the filter rack within your furnace or air conditioner. These wonderful filters
attract many dust particles and make them stick to the filter. Every 30 days you
take the filter outdoors or into a large sink and rinse it with a high-pressure
stream of water. When I do this with my electrostatic filter, the water
streaming from the filter is always black and brown.
Many people wonder where dust comes from. The sources can be numerous. If you
handle lots of paper in your home, paper fibers naturally become airborne as you
read books, newspapers and some magazines. Dust from countless outdoor sources
will naturally be sucked into any open windows.
Some inexpensive carpets create dust as fibers from the carpet, carpet
backing and even some carpet padding become airborne from simple foot traffic
across the carpet. Fibers and dust are released from upholstered furniture,
clothes, hobby and craft activities and food preparation.
If you want to try to pinpoint the actual source of dust, take a sample from
a surface with a piece of regular cellophane tape. Use a 10x or 20x hand
magnifier and look at the actual dust particles. You will be shocked at how
different each of the dust particles appears. Dust from newspaper or blank paper
is vastly different from flour dust or wood sanding dust. Drywall dust looks
completely different from carpet fiber dust. Once you determine what the dust
source is, try to stop or minimize the activity that actually creates that
dust.