Installing an air filter backwards can have serious consequences for your HVAC system. Air will have a harder time flowing through the filter, resulting in higher utility bills and possibly damaging your boiler or air conditioner. The biggest damage that can result from a filter installed backwards is that it can reduce the life expectancy of your HVAC system. An upside-down air conditioning filter will greatly slow the airflow, making your oven more difficult to operate. When efficiency decreases, the likelihood of a system failure, such as a leaking refrigerant line or a faulty compressor, increases.
The biggest problem with installing an air filter backwards is that the oven has to work harder to do its job. One side of the filter is more porous than the other. An oven or central air unit that has to suck air through the non-porous side of a filter loses efficiency and works longer, requiring more energy because it slows the flow of air through the heat exchanger, according to Bob Vila. The result is an increase in your utility bill and additional wear and tear on your HVAC system. The most common problem you'll have if you have an improperly installed filter is decreased efficiency.
Since the filter is designed to be efficient when installed only one way, its improper installation will cause your system to be inefficient. In reality, one side of the filter is more porous to allow more air to flow freely. So, when a filter is installed backwards, it means that your oven has to work harder to deliver the results you want. This will result in higher utility bills and may cause damage to your oven. At first you won't feel the effects of this, but this inefficiency can build up and cause the oven system to break and further repairs.
The backward filter reduced airflow through the evaporator, reducing the amount of heat transferred to the refrigerant. Because of this, the refrigerant may not boil as soon as it should. This caused the coils at the beginning of the evaporator to be very cold, causing the normal condensation found in the coils to begin to freeze. As the coils freeze, the air flow decreases even more. As air flow decreases, less heat is transferred to the refrigerant. This causes a snowball effect, which extends along the line.
The most common problem a rear-facing filter will face is simple inefficiency. If your oven is forced to blow air through the non-porous end of a filter, you'll need more energy to do so. The fan will be overworked and you will pay more money for your heating. The same is doubly true for an air conditioner that has several filters to keep outdoor contaminants out of the indoor air. As the owner of a central heating and cooling system, one of your most important maintenance responsibilities is to regularly change your air filter.
When installing the filter incorrectly, the system that removes dust and other accumulated particles will not work. The MorConnect team will also be happy to install your oven filter whenever you're not confident enough to install it yourself. This makes sense because you want the air to be filtered before it reaches the actual oven equipment and covers it with dust. The fibers in a filter are designed to work efficiently in one direction only, allowing air to pass smoothly without interference. Check the filters every month and change them when you can no longer see the light coming through the filter. However, if you're not careful, an upside-down air filter can cause quite a few problems with your heating and cooling system.
As mentioned earlier, a backward filter reduces airflow and more dust enters the system. Basically, it boils down to the fact that the filter was designed to be more porous when air first enters the filter (to trap larger particles) and less porous on the outlet side (to trap small dust particles). While turning the air filter upside down from time to time isn't likely to cause damage to the system, it can cost you money in efficiency. Having an inverted HVAC filter can cause system damage, mold problems, poor indoor air quality, and other problems. When installing the oven filter upside down, there is no uniform distribution of dust throughout the 1-inch filter material.
With repeated short cycles of your furnace or HVAC system, you are putting much more pressure on it than with normal use. Nor can it capture dust particles when air moves through it in reverse direction. The oven filters are designed to be positioned a certain way and not following this proper direction can cause problems. So make sure you install them correctly! As a result of incorrect installation of an air filter, your oven has to work harder than usual which leads to higher utility bills and may even cause damage to your oven. At first you won't feel any effects but this inefficiency can build up over time and cause further repairs or even break down your oven system completely! To avoid all these problems make sure you check your filters every month and change them when necessary so that they are always working efficiently.