New York Renovator

We had our first big freeze last night. The house is pretty cold this morning, but I am stubbornly being a miserly scrooge frugal by refusing to turn on the furnace yet. Truth is, I’m late this year in getting ready for winter! My furnace needs a tune up and new filters yet, and I need to inspect the ducts to make sure everything is working properly.

One of the nicest things you can do for your furnace is changing the filter regularly. But how often does one change the filters? I’ve done a little research, and the answer is: it depends. Haha! Seriously, it does depend on your furnace, your house, and your lifestyle. If you have a lot of pets and a huge drafty dusty home like I do, you should change your furnace filters every month. If you use your furnace irregularly, have no pets, and have a smaller home, every other month or every three months are fine. Most furnaces come with recommendations in the manual; always check that first.

The main purpose of the furnace filter is to protect your furnace’s delicate moving parts from dust and dirt. And some filters come with extra benefits, such as capturing very small particles of dander, dust, and allergens. I only use those now. You should see how quickly they fill up with gunk!

I read a review at Consumer Reports a while ago, and they did a test on furnace filters. The “cheapo” brands (the ones I always got) were horribly non-effective in filtering dust and allergens from the furnace system. The filter that got the highest grades were those by the manufacturer 3M. Those are the only ones I purchase now; they’re called Filtrete Micro Allergen Reduction Furnace Filter. They are, obviously, more expensive than the cheapo ones, but at least they do the job! And we change them every month (well, try to). So I am always looking for deals. I used to get them from my local Big Box stores, but have recently found the filters I use at Buy.com. They come in a pack of 6 and the shipping is very inexpensive. Sometimes you can snag some when there’s a good sale; however, at this time of year, sometimes things are out of stock. Don’t ever wait to order seasonal stuff like this!

It’s important to change your filters regularly. Leaving filthy filters in your furnace can cause the furnace to overheat and shut down; installing insufficient filters can cause dust and dirt to pass into your furnace motor, clogging up the works and reducing the efficiency of the furnace (which means more expensive heating bills). Be sure to change your filters regularly! And if you’re looking for some good prices and great service, check out Buy.com’s inventory.

I saw this neat little gadget at HipCompass. It’s a handheld water sterilizer, called the “SteriPEN Adventurer Handheld Water Purifier.” When swished around in a glass of dirty water, it’s supposed to destroy the DNA of nasty microbes. It uses ultraviolet light to do so. Interesting! I don’t know if I’d be so brave as to try out the water to make sure the gadget works. And it’s $78 at Amazon, gulp. So next to travel insurance, this could be quite the expensive little carry-all. They have bigger filtration systems, too.

Water filtration is on my mind because Health Nut Wannabee Mom had a great post about bottled water versus tap water. She wrote about the benefits of tap water versus the expensive bottled water. And I agree, tap water can be just as good or better than bottled water. But it really depends on your source. If you live near a bunch of landfills or toxic waste dumps, you can be assured that bottled water is a better choice than tap water. I wrote in the comments:

Tap water has so much junk in it. It’s basically sewage liquid, run-off water, and ground water that goes through a treatment plant. My tap water is loaded with chemicals. I know there’s flouride, chlorine, and lead in it, and God-knows what else. In Arizona and Nevada, there’s tungsten in the tap water which has led to a leukemia epidemic there. The water in Albany, NY, was recently tested and was found to have exceedingly high levels of Cialis in it. How on earth did Cialis get in the public water supply? The water is treated WASTE water– people who took Cialis (and I guess there are a lot of men in Albany who do) pass the drug into their urine. The urine goes through the septic system, to be recycled and treated for our drinking water. The chemical treatments might remove cholera and typhoid, but not a lot of the prescription drugs that people take.

There are increasing levels of chemicals — purposely added, and some are there from industrial waste run-off that I just don’t trust tap water…

I’ve been puttering around, looking at water filtration systems and wondering if I want to install something when we redo the kitchen. I guess I just don’t trust the tap water anymore. More to think about…