100 Ways to Reduce Your Impact

Step 22 Fresh Filters

Maintain your air-conditioning and heating systems by changing air-filters and keeping your air-conditioner coils clean.

Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Comments

[osgeld]

nice 1988 dryer, mr energy star :)

[scratchc]

so the pic cant possibly be taken from the internet?

[Brennn10]

None of these photos were taken from the internet. Originally, I did have some internet photos, but the television network Planet Green was interested in doing a piece about this Instructable, and they wanted all original pictures.

[fwater]

Good eye. And amen. Isn't it odd that the environmentalist crusaders want YOU to change?

[resago]

troll

[fwater]

Nope. Just a guy calling you eliteist, alarmist, environmentalist buffoons on your enormous piles of BS.

[cornbaque]

Remember when one of the suggestions is how you should air dry your clothes? I too have an old dryer for emergencies, like I need clothes now (for a surprise business meeting or the like), but that doesn't mean I use it more than once every four-five months. Why should I increase my carbon footprint any more by buying and shipping a new dryer, just to put on the appearance that I have all energy-star appliances I almost never use?

[belcat]

Don't buy cheap filters neither. Cheap filters let a lot of dust through, which then coats the coils of your a/c unit. Obviously this doesn't improve it's efficiency.