by John Traveler

Created on: October 24, 2009

Old Man Winter is about to be knocking on the door, and in a few places has probably already made his entrance. Time to fire up the furnace and make everything cozy. If you have a newer furnace with an electronic igniter, it's a matter of flipping the switch, and/or turning up the thermostat. In the case that you have an older furnace model, you may have to relight the pilot. But wait a minute! Aren't you forgetting something? How about installing a new clean air filter in your heating system?

The filter you installed last year is now full of dust, perhaps even a colony of micro-bacteria and other disgusting stuff which belongs in the trash, not in the air you and your family will breathe all winter. Furthermore, with a clean new filter your heating system will operate more efficiently, saving fuel an putting some extra change back in your pocket to enjoy the winter festivities with. And changing your furnace's air filter is pretty easy to do.

On some models, the filter is directly accessible from the front of the furnace. Simply slide it out, drop it in one of those plastic grocery bags and tape it up to keep the dirt in the bag. Taking the filter with you to the nearest Home Depot, Lowe's, or another favorite hardware store is a sure way to make sure you get the right replacement filter. If you choose not to cart the old filter with you, just measure its length and width an jot them down. When you get to the store you will note that they have many different shapes and sizes of furnace filters.

In other cases, to get to the filter in your furnace or HVAC system, you may need to remove an access panel on the front of the unit. These panels usually just pop off, but may also be held in place with a couple of screws or other fasteners. The vast majority of heating systems draft or draw air in at the bottom through a blower which forces the air through the burner/heat exchanger section. The heated air coming from the heat exchanger is distributed to each room in the house through a ducting system in the attic. The return air is ducted from a central intake through the basement or crawlspace under the home back to the blower. The furnace filter is almost always located between the blower and heat exchanger. On rarer occasions, you might come across a furnace that has the filter on the air intake side of the blower.

Before you slide your new filter back in, it's probably a good idea to vacuum around the area sucking up any loose dust and cobwebs that have accumulated. In fact, giving the whole furnace a once over with the vacuum is probably a good idea. Installing the new filter is as simple as sliding it into the slot, but do so carefully as these filters are only made of cardboard and could be damaged easily.

So that's about all there is to changing the air filter on your furnace. One final thought; if your unit is of the HVAC (heating and air conditioning) unit, changing the filter in the fall and spring may be a good idea, because it is essentially doing double duty. In fact, if you live in a dusty area, or even one where mold and mildew are prevalent, you might choose to change your filter more frequently than once or twice a year, assuring your family always has a source of clean healthy air to breathe. For just a few dollars, changing your furnace filter regularly can be penny wise with respect to energy savings as well as keeping you and your family out of the doctors office, and as you can see, it's pretty easy to do as well.

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