How to battle dust problems

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

I read about the dust problem and I braced myself (fearing the worst). What I learned is if it is windy, then it is time to close things up so that you don't get a wind tunnel. Our yard is all finished and the homes around us are as well.

But as observer53 said, our seals were bad. We figured it out when the painters came and taped things off (putting plastic around the windows and doors and sealing it with tape even against the floor). Low-and-behold two walkout doors had an extreme positive pressure on them pushing in the plastic when the wind was blowing. I could push on the plastic and it snapped back. Needless to say the seal was less than ideal. That of course also meant I was wasting energy.

I had the doors adjusted and I put in new edge stripping. In the end, the dust is just a little worse than in MN. If I am out of the house for a month it really isn't bad at all. It might be twice as bad as our homes in MN.

[MGotcha]

You can set your AC fan/blower to "recirculate" instead of "auto" to run more often and make sure to replace your filter every month with the blower running more often (older or cheap ACs may not have a recirc option). If your AC duct work is not sealed up tight, it could actually be drawing in outside dirty air when it runs.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by MGotcha

You can set your AC fan/blower to "recirculate" instead of "auto" to run more often and make sure to replace your filter every month with the blower running more often (older or cheap ACs may not have a recirc option). If your AC duct work is not sealed up tight, it could actually be drawing in outside dirty air when it runs.

I've had good luck with thicker hvac filters - you can buy "high efficiency" filters (like the "filtrete" filters), but those tend to reduce airflow and choke the system off.

Honeywell makes an extra-thick filter that fits into a standard 1" thick frame, but the filter is actually 4-5" thick. You only have to change them once a year or so, and they don't choke your a/c system off.

Buy Honeywell Return Grille Replacement Filter FC40R1029 20" x 30" x 5" | Honeywell FC40R1029

We also pulled all the carpets out of our house. We still have some dust, but at least we aren't blowing it back through the hvac system.