Would you Rather Have Dirty Hands or Dirty Lungs?

Changing your furnace filters is a dusty, dirty job. the best thing about it is that it only takes a minute or two. And this is definitely one time that it pays to get your hands dirty.

First, keeping clean filters in your furnace pays off in fuel savings. Dirty filters make the heat exchanger in your furnace dirty, too. When the heat exchanger gets dirty, it doesn't send as mush heat as is should into your house. You end up burning more fuel than you really need to. Furnace filters are cheap. Fuel is expensive.

Second, furnace filters trap gunk that would otherwise find it's way into your home, your clothes, your hair,-- and your lungs. Woven fiberglass filters aren't exactly high-tech, but they can remove a lot of the dust, bacteria and plant spores you'd otherwise be breathing.

Maybe remove isn't the right word. A furnace filter traps these airborne nasties and holds them until you come along and throw them (and it) away. If you don't come along, your filter becomes bacteria central--a staging ground for all kinds of unpleasant life forms (and former life forms).

If you let things get bad enough, you can turn your system into a clogged up, wheezing, can't-catch-it's-breath shadow of it's former self.

Our advice: don't let your filters get old and dirty. Do the simplest of furnace maintenance jobs often. Get your hands dirty, and save your furnace and your lungs.

Contact us at plupson@acca-ncc.org

© 1996 ACCA-NCC

Last Updated: June 11, 2001
Updated By: PSL