The heating and cooling systems in the average home typically use about half of the energy consumed each month. To heat and cool your home efficiently and reduce unnecessary spending, it's important to keep the HVAC system in good working condition with regular maintenance. What specifically should you focus on?

Replacing your home air filter regularly improves HVAC system performance and efficiency, as well as safeguarding indoor air quality. Monthly home air filter changes are well within the skill set of any homeowner and pay you back with lower operating costs and enhanced indoor comfort.

Home heating systems can stop working for a wide range of reasons, and none of them are welcome on a cold winter’s night. Some system breakdowns may be relatively easy to fix yourself. When you can’t fix it, any additional information you can pass on to a qualified service technician may help speed repairs. Start troubleshooting heating in these three primary areas.

While you may know that harmful pollutants can affect the indoor air quality (IAQ) of your home, what you may not know is that there's a natural way to help keep your IAQ high.

A clean air filter will not only extend the life of your air conditioner, but also will help lower your energy bill, keep your air quality high and keep your HVAC system cleaner.

Scheduling an annual furnace tune-up ensures that your furnace will be ready to combat the chill that settles in the Massachusetts area every winter -- and hangs around for several months. Homeowners can participate in preparing for and enduring winter weather by checking and changing the furnace filter.

Your HVAC systems are operating, but do you know how well they are actually performing?

When should you consider having professional indoor air quality testing? Is it only when you discover bats are living in your attic or bees in your walls? Those are two extreme examples that could definitely impact your indoor air.

There are many undesirable particles floating through our air, such as pollution, cigarette smoke, pet dander, mold spores, dirt and even bacteria. For those of us who live in or near a city, such as the Greater Boston area, air conditions can often be even worse. And while you cannot control the air outside, you can help control the air in your home.

Being locked inside our Massachusetts homes during summer heat and frigid winter temperatures means we're also locked up with indoor contaminants. Furnace filters can help to keep indoor air quality at acceptable levels, and it also keeps the furnace clean. To select an efficient furnace filter, you should know what efficiency ratings to look for: