House Electronic Air Filter

[JPope]

The house we are in has a Carrier Electronic Air Filter in the return duct just before the blower motor. Have talked to several

local installers and got varying opinions about the effectiveness.

You can remove the pre-filter (heavy guage overlapping mesh) and the two electronic filter sections and clean them in the dish washer. The speed of the clicking sound will tell you when they are dirty (can drive you nuts @ 2AM !!!!).



With the varying local opinions, I was wondering what a broader exposure would say as to the effectiveness of this type of filtration versus the more convential replaceable filters (normal or high efficiency, not HEPA)????



Thanks in advance.

 

[DMcClellan]

My furnace system has the electronic filter, the road I live on is gravel, about 4 years ago they "chip coated" the road, helps hold the dust down. Anyway, pre-chip coat I'd have to clean that filter about every two weeks. Now it's about once a month. I soak mine in the tub, and yes, I do like it much better them the screen type filters. It collects a lot of dust. If my furnace didn't have one, I would install one. My $0. 02.

 

[klenger]

I have had a Honeywell electronic air cleaner installed in the two previous homes I had. It worked very well. Another advantage of an electronic air cleaner is that it provides almost no resistance to air flow through the system. Other than the price to purchase the system, I am not aware of any drawbacks.

 

[JPope]

Thanks guys!!

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

How well do this systems keep dust and pet dander down in a home? With the dry desert environment and occasional dust storms and punks driving their ricers up the alley at 60 mph, dusting is a frequent and involved chore 10 months a year



Vaughn

 

[krs]

Vaughn,

You gotta' get out of Tri-Cites. It's bad for a person of your sensitivities. Find a place with trees. Trees enrich the soul.

 

[JPope]

"How well do this systems keep dust and pet dander down in a home?... "



That is sort of why I was asking. We have been in the house for a while with the system. One repair guy says to keep the fan running all of the time (to protect the plastic isolation boot @ connection to hard duct from heat buildup?), another says no?



When just the fan running the electronic system does not supply power to the filter, so it seems to me to be circulating unfiltered air, and we are trying now to have the fan running only when the system is calling for heat/cooling to see if that helps. We do not have desert low humidity here except during the coldest days, but the dust has been appearing heavier (house is an older one, so not sealed as well as new).



We live in a rural area (though becoming more populated every day :{ ) and the dust can be noticed more if the wind is blowing (so maybe not a filter problem but house sealing??) from the farm fields around us, with no crops in winter. You can observe the dirt/dust layer on the snow when the wind has been blowing.



Doing more research due to conflicting repairman statements, but do note that the coarse prefilters do pick up a lot of the larger stuff, and the electronic wire system does get coated regularly, so the system works, just how efficent is the question, though as noted the way you operate the system (fan running full time or not) may be a factor also.



"Another advantage of an electronic air cleaner is that it provides almost no resistance to air flow through the system. ... " Is something that I am wondering if a prefilter that is more efficent would alter the resistance enought to affect the electronic portion?????

 

[klenger]

The Honeywell air cleaners that we had filtered the air whenever there was air flow across them. There is a sail switch in the filter that detects air flow, and turns on the electronics. I suspect yours is the same way. Are there any wires connected to the air cleaner other than the 115 vac power cord? If not, then it would have no way of knowing if the furnace was on.



Some of the newer programable t-stats have the option to run the fan continueously for any or all of the heat/cool periods. I have ours set to run the fan for the "Wake" period from about 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM so that the air in the house circulates during that time. There are some months between the heating and cooling season where the fan would not run for weeks otherwise.

 

[JPope]

Sail Switch/Indentifying Appearance??

Was reading the manual to see about this connection and found an insert in the bottom of the envelope that I had not seen before.



" Problem- White dust on furnishings..... This dust can be described as CLEAN DIRT and is composed mainly of lint, which settles out of living space before it reaches the aire returns. It is white because of the submicron particles which normally would color it and render it invisible, have been removed from the air space. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .



Remedy- This problem requires no solution. It is visible evidence that the air cleaner is cleaning up the staining and soiling dirt particles from the living space. "



This white dust (submicron??? and I can see?) appears to be what I am seeing.



Kind of confused, white dust GOOD, Black/dirty dust BAD????????



Under Multispeed direct drive furnaces option I see a sail switch (field supplied?) but not uder the other options, single speed, multispeed direct drive with field supplied air cleaner relay, and furnaces with printed-circuit control board. What does a sail switch look like??

 

[klenger]

I don't think I have ever seen the sail switch, but the term comes from a sail on a sailboat. When air is moving accross the switch, the sail moves, causing the switch to make contact. Hopefully this explanation will help you determine if you have one.

 

[JPope]

Thanks for the help so far Ken. Still haven't found a sail switch or what it looks like (kind of figured from the name what it would do) other than the schematic mentioning it in one control option. Spent more time checking today with just the fan running, and the indicator light stays on (indicating the unit is on), with just the fan running, so maybe my unit uses the printed circuit board control panel option, but the sail switch could be there also. The connections between the sections are sensitive to making contact if not just right. Found out from the manual that the grids are at 9,000 to 11,000 VDC, which explains the arcing noise when dirty!!!

Anyway thanks for the help again.



Vaughn: see what I said previously about the white dirt /black dirt, cause that is what caused my initial question about efficiency. According to the manual, more dust present means more frequent cleaning needed, can vary from 1 month to 6 months.

Also found out that ozone is produced that could cause a problem to people sensitive to it, and that this is typically below the background level for a major city (0. 0006PPM to 0. 020ppm produced by filter versus 0. 020 to 0. 040ppm background in a major city). Never have noticed it though??

 

[Glen]

Our Honeywell worked so well that it would remove cigarette smoke from the air. I don't have one with my hydronic system. Maybe I will buy one of the portable units.