Using thicker air filters makes my home smell nicer

I live in a condominium that has a shared attic with several other units within one single building.

I’m lucky that I don’t live in a larger building with more units like many of my friends and family members.

It’s hard enough now dealing with all of the warm air that gets into my condo from the attic above. You also deal with every bit of junk that all of the individual condo owners store in their sections of the shared attic. I’m not talking about clutter or anything that might be frustrating in a purely visual sense. I’m talking about all of the dust and mold that gets added to the attic space when fellow owners store junk that was affected by floods and other natural disasters. As a result, the attic does not smell good at all. And no matter how hard I try to seal my attic door, some of that odor gets into the rest of the condo. I was told by my HVAC tech that it’s possible there are tiny leaks in my ductwork that is letting attic air get pushed into my air system, thus accounting for the odors. The best thing I can do right now to minimize the odor is through installing charcoal air conditioner filters. These things are great—made by the biggest a/c filter manufacturer, they feature one of the normal allergen filters that is coated on one side with small black crystals the size of large salt granules. The small but abundant crystals are activated charcoal and will absorb odors passing through the air conditioner. Just like charcoal is used in a person’s stomach to absorb poisons and chemicals, the charcoal on my filters behaves in much the same way. It’s not a perfect fix for the attic odors, but it knocks the severity back by over 70%.

a/c care plan