QUESTION FROM rneilan

I have a unico high velocity air and heat system.
The heat system is fired by oil.
I have three return filter vents. I am aware these filters should be changed regularly for the system to operat efficiently. However, should these filters get real dirty over a period of six months or so due to neglect etc..would it follow that the heating sytem would run overtime trying to bring the building up to the set temprature resulting in not only a higher use of electricity but also oil. If this were to occur over the winter months in New England can you estimate a a percentage the loss of efficiency. For example, as a pwercentage,how much more oil would I be burning due to the lack of efficiency. Can this be estimated?
Thank You

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD

Dear rneilan:

A good rule of thumb is that dirty air filters can cost you up to an additional 10% in energy costs. Its not as much the fuel (oil) to run your furnace, but rather, its the additional electricity to push the air across filters that have higher resistance because they are dirty.

If you want to calculate more specifically what it could be costing you for your particular equipment, here is a website that describes the calculations to do this:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200510/ai_n15704065

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com