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Improving Home Air Quality - Keep Air Ducts Clean

I lived in a small apartment once that had forced air heating. The fuel oil burning forced air furnace seemed to work fine until it ran out of fuel 2 days after I moved in (mid winter in Vermont). The previous tenant had raised the temperature in the apartment during his last few days there and used up virtually all the remaining fuel oil. He was a friend of mine and had forgot to tell me I needed to order more fuel. Fast forward to the emergency Fuel Oil Guy filling the tank and priming my furnace so I could have heat again. After this little episode I decided to look around and see what else might go wrong and nip it in the bud. I found the furnace filter Coated With 3/4” of dust. Now to the point of this long story. After installing a $3 filter, the apartment heated up in record time. The warm air coming from the vents gave new meaning to the term Forced Air. It was more like a jet blast. From then on the furnace only ran for about a minute each time in order to heat the small apartment. With the dirty filter it would take 15 minutes to heat the apartment. I don’t know what the difference was in the amount of fuel used but it had to be massive. Clean equipment not only runs better but it is also easier to spot problems when not covered in grime.