People in many parts of the country are just starting to feel the first cool breezes of Fall, and have begun waking up to chilly mornings.  Before you turn on your home’s furnace for the first time this year, make sure you’re starting with a clean furnace filter.  Whether you have a gas furnace, or an electric furnace, a clean furnace filter will help you conserve energy, save money, and live greener. Consider the following:

Conserve Energy: A dirty filter makes your furnace work harder, and consume more energy.  If you want to save energy, replace your furnace filter once a month, or perhaps even more often if you have pets.

Furnace Life Span: Regularly changing your furnace filter will help prevent the need for early replacement of your furnace.  This will save you money, and reduce the amount of waste in landfills.

Clean Air: Clean furnace filters promote clean air in your home by capturing the dust, mold, pet hair, and other particulates circulating in the air. Circulating air through a dirty filter just adds more dust and contaminates to the air you breathe.

Permanent Filters: If you’re concerned about the waste generated by disposable furnace filters, you may want to consider a reusable furnace filter.   This permanent furnace filter, available at Never Buy Another Filter.Com, can be used for  years.  When it gets dirty, simply hose off, dry, and reuse.

Here’s some helpful information on how to change a furnace filter.

Can you imagine powering everyday items like your water heater, furnace, and kitchen stove with the power of the wind? In light of the current fuel crisis, and growing environmental problems, Americans are increasingly catching the drift when it comes to green energy sources, and wind power is high on the list.

According to Wikipedia, wind power is responsible for just 1% of the world’s total energy, but it is readily utilized in some countries. For example, wind turbines are responsible for 19% of energy production in Denmark, where wind farms are used to generate green energy for power grids.

Although they are certainly a green living idea worth checking into, you should be aware that wind turbines require a significant investment on the part of the homeowner. The Southwest Windpower Skystream 3 grid-tie wind turbine system, pictured above, lists at $5,387 at Real Goods.

Although we generally think of ceiling fans as a way to ward off summer heat, don’t overlook them as a way to conserve energy in the winter. Here’s how ceiling fans can help you reduce winter heating bills:

Since hot air rises, much of the heat we pay for ends up near the ceilings in our home, with cold air near the floor. In the winter, flip the switch on your ceiling fans to reverse, so that the blades will spin in the opposite direction. This simple action will break up the layers of hot and cold air by forcing the warm air near the ceiling downward, allowing you to stay warmer without cranking up the thermostat on your furnace. The low setting on your ceiling fans should be enough to keep the warm air down where you need it.

Here’s a tutorial on how to install a ceiling fan.