Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Refusing to Change Furnace Filter, Halloween, Earrings

There is more than 1/4 inch dirt on return filter for the furnace and he is adamant that it is not time to change the filter. He pointed out that the day after he changes the filter there is that much dust/dirt on it, so why change it.

I have tried to reason with him and read cautions from the internet. He is immune to reason. He just yells which I have not done. His yelling consists of an hvac neighbor telling him it is okay to only change the filter once a year. Anecdotes are all I get otherwise.

When my little unit filter was washed and vacuumed, the unit did run colder and the air smelled fresher, not that I noticed it smelling stale here.

When I went to bed the air was stuffy and dusty smelling. I used just a sheet with a comforter over my feet. Eventually, I had the comforter over me. I was awake until 4 am. !!! Finally, I took one of his Benadryl. Now, I feel groggy still and it is about 2 pm Saturday.

It is warm enough for the ac, but, no, we have to have the heat on. A breath of fresh, cool air would be nice.

He calls it a furnace. It is a heat pump outdoors. Maybe that is still called a furnace.

Last night, instead of the chicken fingers, we had a sausage patty with the sweet potato and field peas and snaps. The frozen patty is quite large and very mild. I was in heaven eating the sweet potatoes. I expressed the same often as I ate. I only had a small one. It was disappointing not to be able to eat the skin. My chickens would have loved to have the skin with bits of the sweet potato still there.

It is gloomy looking outside. Tommy said it rained just a little this morning. Rain of some sort is predicted for the rest of the day. I loved the heat and dry weather we had for so long.

I did buy one pair of sweat pants for the house. They are too hot for me.

I don't know where my earrings are. I bought one pair, but since I do not wear pierced earrings, I had to convert them to clip-ons. In my tool box and jewelry supplies, I had a total of five pair of needle-nosed pliers, maybe more. Yard sales yielded most of those. They are so expensive. Tommy has none. I bought a pair of the jewelry pliers, but they are so short and tiny, I returned them. Now, there are none here and there are Halloween earrings to convert soon--Silver skeleton hands.

What do you know about furnace filter changing?
Do you have Halloween jewelry you wear?
Do you have to convert pierced earrings to clip-on?

20 comments:

  1. We change our filters at least quarterly, more often if they are used heavily.
    Except for a Christmas tree pin I have no seasonal jewelry and have pierced ears so no need to change to clip on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anne,
      Thanks. The only Christmas jewelry I have is a holly leaf dipped in gold, well, two for earrings. I wear them once or twice each holiday. Now, I have one Halloween jewelry, the skeleton hands earrings--$3.

      Delete
  2. I wear the same pair of earrings all the time. They are very hard to clip on. Besides my hair cut is a bit below my ears so no one sees them anyway. I bought some Christmas decorations at Dollar Tree today but wont put them up yet. It seems Christmas starts earlier every year

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ann, since all my are missing, I have one pair new I wear all the time. I do have lots of Christmas decorations saved from the chaos. But, I doubt I will get them put up at all. Okay, I do have a 3' tree I plan to put up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We change our filters every month or every other. We are allergic to dust mites and have asthama, so we change filters often. It makes your unit run better. The longer you wait to change the filters the harder it is on the unit and could be costly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JJ,
      Thanks. I am allergic to dust mites and dust and have asthma. He is always so stopped up, sneezing, and blowing his nose. But, the price of a filter stops him from changing the filter. He is not poor and can afford filters easily. I keep telling him it might cost him more in the long run! Thanks.

      Delete
  5. My husband prefers to buy very cheap furnace filters because we have to change them often. There's a reason we call our Pomeranian Fuzzy. He gives our furnace filters a work out. By very cheap, I am talking about $2.00 or so each. We get them at the small local hardware store that has been in business for about 75 years or more. I don't know the prices at Home Depot, maybe even cheaper, but we like to buy at our local family run hardware store. We hate walking around for 45 minutes at HD and then waiting to check out. The workers at the local hardware store can always direct me (or walk me right to) the section for whatever I need and tell me information about whatever it is. I can't even imagine that happening at Home Depot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Susie,
      I always used a local hardware store. My friend hated the walking in Lowe's search for product, and then getting home with the wrong thing. So, I kept telling her about the local hardware store. When she finally went there, she was thanking me for pestering her when she complained about Lowe's. She said the guy took her to the product, took it off the shelf and handed it to her. Local and small is sometimes the best. I will have to see what he pays and where he gets them. Thanks.

      Delete
  6. I do not wear any Halloween jewelry and I do not have to convert pierced earrings to clip-on.

    From what I've read, how often to change the filter depends on the type of HVAC you have (maybe his neighbor's is different) and the size (thickness) of the filter. For my 1" filter, it's recommended to change them every month or every other month (but I've always thought that's just so they can sell more filters). I do mine every 3 months, when the seasons change, and they're usually pretty dirty by that time. There's a lot of info you can print down and show Tommy that a filthy dirty filter is not doing anybody any good. Of course given the condition of the bathroom floor he may not care. I wish you well in your ongoing quest to make things better around there. My filters are $9.95 at Ace Hardware but sometimes I can get $5 coupons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. rhymes,
      Thanks for the price info. I have never bought a filter. Well, for the last 50 years have not had a return. He does not have a working printer. Neither do I at this point. He would probably wad it up and throw it away. Thanks for the well wishes!

      Delete
  7. We change our filter every 3 months it is for allergies... it is a filter designed for that. A heat pump is a furnace. My sister has one. She changes her filter every 6 months. BUT vacuums her vents monthly.If there is dust in the vent pipe it will always turn the filter dirty in 24 hrs. A new furnace could require new duct work like my son's did. $14000 later he has it working again.Especially if the AC takes Freon which is no longer being made....supplies are limited.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chef,
      If i had my vacuum, i would clean it whether he liked it or not. However, his stick-like vac would be too heavy for me to use a light touch on the filter. I suspected the duct-work was filthy! This one was $10K and still not paid for. I have no idea even the brand. Thanks.

      Delete
  8. Have you considered that some of Tommy's outbursts and dysfunction might be from early dementia?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anne,
      I don't think so. He has been the same since I met him in 2006. But, only certain things bring on his outbursts. However, diabetes can bring on dementia. I talked to my mother's best friend who claimed she did not know anyone by that name. Her husband grabbed the phone and said his wife had diabetes and dementia from the disease. I have told him that he is headed that way if he does not manage the diabetes better.

      Delete
  9. We change our AC filter every month. We have pets and a lot of foot traffic through the house. The filter is filthy, and changing it will hopefully extend the life of our AC unit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NO traffic or pets here, thankfully. I am going with the idea that he will ruin the filter since he is less agitated at my mentioning this. Thanks.

      Delete
  10. You can clean the filter -- to make it last a whole year. Just vacuum it on both sides. Better, you can also replace it with a non-disposable filter, and wash it every few months in hot soapy water... then let it air dry in the sunlight. This would save tons of $$... after the initial investment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. meetsy, he has quit yelling about not changing the filter. So, I think he will do something. My vacuum with proper tools to vacuum it are gone. His may just destroy the filter. But, I have been mentioning the cleaning of it every day in different ways. But, you know men. This has to be his idea alone.

      Delete
  11. Our old house we changed every month. Then I bought "3 month type" and we changed 3 mos. With our brand new furnace system we have 2 filters to replace and the HVAC guy says to do it twice a year. I was going to suggest vacuuming the filter, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One,
      Thanks. He is talking abut the filter without yelling or acting out. He told me it was a 14"x30" filter. We are discussing the vacuum. So, I will get around to discussing the filter and vacuum in one conversation.

      Delete

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