13. Clear the air

This is your furnace filter:

Anatomy of a furnace filter: Yes, the little arrow is indeed important.

This is your furnace filter on drugs:

Your furnace filter on cake, a cake of dust that is.

Ever try to vacuum with a full canister? You don’t like doing all of that work to no avail, so don’t make your furnace suck and suck and suck with no happy ending!

Speaking of vacuuming, vacuum your cold air returns. For one, it’s gross seeing fur on them, and two, if they are dirty, then your furnace filter likely is too. Use them like a reminder to change/clean your filter.

I’m lucky because I live in an house that is inverted, you might say; the bedrooms are in the basement. Because I walk by the furnace room multiple times a day I invested in a high-end furnace for more than just it’s efficiency: I didn’t want to be able to hear the fans. (Yes, there are at least two. One you must know, but the other blows of gas fumes so the furnace doesn’t explode. That’s a happy thought.) The second side-benefit is that the slightest furnace noise signals: Time to change the filter!

Come on though, folks. Tell me you don’t have an electronic calendar that can send you reminders. You could have a specific calendar for household maintenance reminders. In fact, I’m going to set one up right now! I’ll even make it public!! It will send out reminders to change your furnace filter, your fire detector, you name it!!!

Wait! It already exists!!!!!!

Lifehacker

(That’s right, real time posts, right here, right now.)

Hot tip! I pilfered these photos through Google images, which led me down a rabbit hole of useful tips, like: How to change or replace your furnace filter. As you can see by the first photo (Anatomy of a furnace filter), the direction of airflow does in fact matter, make sure it goes in the right way! Sage advice.

Read more tips, that just might work, here.

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Live within limits without limiting life

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