lisamarie Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 We are getting a new furnace through our county weatherization program. Our current furnace has a HEPA filter on it that I'm guessing is 15+ years old. 4 of my family members have dust, pollen and mold allergies. 2 of us have asthma. So we really need a good filter. So we have 3 options and both the replacements are Honeywell brand (which I read online isn't the best brand, so I may try to get a quote from a different company for this part): 1. Leave the existing filter on. 2. Buy a similar filter unit that is more current for $350. 3. Buy an electronic air cleaner that zaps the particles for $1100. Because we are getting the furnace for free when we were expecting to replace it ourselves in the next few years, we have enough money to cover any of these options. I just don't know what the best bet would be to meet our needs. So I'm hoping those of you who also deal with allergies and have looked into this can weigh in with some suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 (edited) Your filter is 15 years old or the furnace? I am confused. I don't think we have the same type of filter...ours has a disposable filter that we change every four-six months Edited February 16, 2011 by Sis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I change my filter monthly even though it says it will last 3-6 months. Or allergies can't handle any longer. I haven't tried any of what you are considering though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisamarie Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 Not the filter, the filter unit is 15 years old. Where most standard furnace filter units are 1-2 inches thick, the one on my furnace is 8 inches thick and takes a specialty filter. It's an add on. Our furnace is 30+ years old, but when the old owners discovered their DD had bad asthma, they paid to install a HEPA whole house filtration system on the furnace to capture more particles than a standard filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Not the filter, the filter unit is 15 years old. Where most standard furnace filter units are 1-2 inches thick, the one on my furnace is 8 inches thick and takes a specialty filter. It's an add on. Our furnace is 30+ years old, but when the old owners discovered their DD had bad asthma, they paid to install a HEPA whole house filtration system on the furnace to capture more particles than a standard filter. Oh...I didn't know that existed. I might actually look at that for our furnace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I'd buy a new filter for $350 and see how it goes. I'd pay to rip out carpet and replace into hard flooring (tile, wood, whatever) before I'd buy an 1100 unit. If you REALLY needed something more in the meantime I'd go with one of the $250-300 room HEPA units. definitely don't get any of the ionizing units; they are BAD for asthmatic people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisamarie Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 I'd buy a new filter for $350 and see how it goes. I'd pay to rip out carpet and replace into hard flooring (tile, wood, whatever) before I'd buy an 1100 unit. If you REALLY needed something more in the meantime I'd go with one of the $250-300 room HEPA units. definitely don't get any of the ionizing units; they are BAD for asthmatic people. I read that after posting this. Which would be bad news for my family. I also did research on hard research flooring. It would cost about the same to redo our living room vs. buying the $1100 unit. DH and I have a long range plan of installing bamboo flooring throughout the house. We're slowly saving up but it'll take a long time to save that much $$$. We have carpet in 4 bedrooms, the dining room, living room, hallway, plus the basement rec room. I think the plan is to keep the unit we have and buy one of these http://acfilter.com/onlinestore/filterse/ because it's a one time purchase vs replacing our filter every 2 years (manufacturer specs say every 2 years). We already have 2 room air purifier units in the bedrooms of the worst allergy sufferers. Then work our way to putting in bamboo flooring in the bedrooms and then work our way through the house as we can afford it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 We are slowly working through our house replacing flooring as well. We have already learned how to tile (easy, actually), and now we're working on learning how to put in hardwood floors. It's much more affordable if you can do it yourself. There are a number of bamboo click flooring options out there--you might take a peek at them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoughCollie Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Lisamarie, have you looked under the carpet? I wanted to replace the flooring in our former house, and someone here mentioned that idea. To my amazement, there was hardwood flooring under most of the carpet I wanted to replace, and it was in good shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisamarie Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 Lisamarie, have you looked under the carpet? I wanted to replace the flooring in our former house, and someone here mentioned that idea. To my amazement, there was hardwood flooring under most of the carpet I wanted to replace, and it was in good shape. Our house was built in 1984 and we bought it from the family that built it. If there was any hardwood under there, they would have kept it hardwood knowing that their DD had severe asthma. I WISH there was a secret under that carpet.;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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