Choosing the Right MERV Rating for Your Home: A Comprehensive Guide

When it comes to ensuring the best air quality and optimal performance of your HVAC system, selecting the right MERV rating for your home is essential. The MERV rating scale is a standard measure of a filter's ability to remove particles from the air in your home, ranging from 1 to 20. Lower grades indicate a lower quality filter, while higher grades indicate a higher quality filter. Our recommended MERV rating for furnace filters is between 6 and 8, as this provides an excellent balance between maximum furnace efficiency and home comfort. Using an air filter with a MERV rating higher than that recommended by the boiler or air conditioner manufacturer may affect its performance.

Studies conducted by researchers from India have found that filtering recirculated air can improve microvascular function in healthy older people, improve other types of vascular function in healthy adults, and produce better lung function in indigenous communities, among other benefits. To understand which filters are best for which applications, refer to the following MERV ranking table:

• Pre-filter in commercial buildings: Filters with a particle size of up to 10.0 microns
• Filters with a particle size of up to 3.0—10.0 microns
• Filters with a particle size of up to 1.0—3.0 microns
• Filters with a particle size of up to 0.3—1.0 microns
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities: Filters up to a particle size of less than 0.30 microns

Air filters can be used as final filters or prefilters. When used as final filters, they are the primary filters of an air conditioning system. The final filters can be used alone in a single filter system, or they can be used in combination with one or more prefilters. When used in a multi-filter system, prefilters trap dirt and large particles before the air reaches the final filters downstream, which then remove the smallest particles. This multi-filter system extends the life of the most expensive final filters, resulting in overall cost savings.

If your family has allergy problems or serious respiratory problems, such as asthma, you may want to invest in filters with higher MERV ratings. Remember that there are always other options to improve indoor air quality if your system can't support the MERV ratings you need. For example, a better MERV rating doesn't always mean that a filter is the best choice for your furnace. With this information at hand and knowing which filters trap certain particle sizes, you can begin to get an idea of which MERV filter rating will work best in your home. It's important to note that using highly rated MERV filters could overload the average home HVAC system, even to its breaking point, and cause heating bills to skyrocket by 26%. A MERV filter with a rating of 16, for example, is designed for use in a more commercial environment. Choosing the right MERV rating for your boiler filter has a big impact on indoor air quality, your HVAC system, and most importantly, your family's well-being.

Selecting the right MERV rating for your air filter is a balancing act between the capabilities of your HVAC system and the indoor air quality you want to achieve. If your system is unable to manage filters with higher MERV ratings, you can talk to your HVAC dealer to select a mid-range MERV rating between 8 and 10. The MERV classification system was developed by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) in 1987 as an effort to develop industry standards for air filters. In general, higher MERV ratings will trap smaller particles; however, it's not as simple as that. Homeowners must make sure they choose a filter that is highly effective but doesn't overload their HVAC system in the process.