Last weekend, I noticed that the air in my home was “off.” I felt like there was an odor in the air and the air felt dirty.
I didn’t have any pets or children and I didn’t change my daily habits, but I knew the air quality issue was something new.
I wasn’t used to impure air. Before calling an HVAC professional or running out and purchasing a brand new air purifier, I did my own research to see if there were any other homeowners who had experienced a similar issue and how they fixed the issue. A lot of the articles I read were discouraging because they either found a major issue with their HVAC system or they bought really expensive air purifiers. A small portion of the information I read online said that I could replace the air filter and it would improve my air quality greatly. I wanted to avoid spending a lot of money, so I was really praying that it was a simple air filter switch. I found the location where my air filter was kept and I unscrewed the front air vent cover and took a good look at the air filter. I was surprised to see how dirty it was. There was a ton of brown dust stuck in the filter and some of it was even hanging off. As I tried to take out the old air filter, some of the dust came flying off. There was a cloud of dust surrounding me and I began coughing. I had to walk away and catch my breath before putting the clean air filter back in because there was so much dust.