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How Pets Effect Your HVAC System

Pets are like family members. We all love our fur babies! But they can cause problems for your HVAC system. Some systems struggle to manage pet dander and fur. Here’s what you can do to get the most out of your HVAC system when you have pets.

Stay away from return grills with pet beds and toys.
Return grills are where air is sucked back into the air handler through a duct in the floor, wall, or ceiling. Not to be confused with where the air is coming out (supply grill – where the air blows out into the conditioned space). Pets often lay down on supply grills because that’s where warm or cool air comes out. There are problems with blocking the supply duct, but we’ll save that for another article. Pets blocking the supply grill won’t hurt the air quality as much as letting them lay at the return grill. Most of the time, the filter is changed at the return grill. Every HVAC system needs to filter the air, but if you have pets, it’s best to filter at the wall return grill, so that pet hair and dander don’t get into the duct system. Some systems have return filter grills on the walls, ceilings, or floors. Many homes have grills that don’t have the right way to put a filter in. Technicians from All Temp can help you evaluate your return grilles and tell you whether or not you should put in return grilles that are made to have a filter. Return grills with filters stop pet hair that has settled in a duct from becoming like a net over time, quickly catching and adding more debris and filling the duct with more and more things that don’t belong there. Filtering finer particles at the air handler is a good idea, but you must be careful not to overwork your HVAC’s blower system by filtering too much. All Temp technicians are trained to help you figure out what level of filtration your HVAC system and ductwork can handle without making the blower motor work too hard.

If you want cleaner air and ducts, All Temp technicians can look at your specific situation and give you ways to improve the air quality in your home. Call us at (704) 413-2300.