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The higher the # the more restricted the air flow is, which is harder for the fan to work with. This may be an issue if the fan is not very good.

It is not true though that the air will become amazingly clear based on the presence of the filter. I used a 11 for a long time and it certainly didn't stop everything from getting covered in dust anyway. My place is not airtight.

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Everyone says this, but it's not true for the newer filters which use electrostatic attraction to filter the smaller particles.

A dirty filter (do you know how many people don't ever change their filter?) will put far more load on a blower than a better filter.

A MERV11 is significantly less effective, and wouldn't affect dust production anyway since it is created mostly by your skin, clothing fibers, etc.

During the California wildfires I bought several air sensors and placed them around my house and experimented with different filters. a MERV16 with a carbon layer reduced VOCs, PM2.5, etc all down to extremely low levels in every room.

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