Maintenance Matters: The energy cost of HVAC air filters.

Every day your building loses energy efficiency, with occasional improvement as equipment is serviced. The “drift”, if left unchecked, could be as much as 30 percent of your energy energy consumption. How does this happen?

A 2012 University of British Columbia study (Montgomery, Green & Rogak) considers the energy cost of filtering air through different styles of standard 61cm x 61cm filter over time. According to the authors “Air filters are installed in HVAC systems to reduce particle concentrations in indoor air. The initial reasoning for filter installation was to prevent particulate from depositing on HVAC equipment, such as cooling or heating coils, and reducing system performance.” While air filters reduce particulate deposit, they are not 100 percent effective.

Montgomery et al found annual filtration costs, for a single (61×61 cm) newly installed filter ranging from just over $100 per year, to $847 per year, across different filter styles and…