Air Handler filter advice conflict.

[RevEd]

My daughter is buying a new house and she asked me to go with her on a the Homeowner orientation/walkthrough.
The guy doing the walkthrough listed all the do's and dont's for the house.

He mentioned don't use the Hepa filter in the air handler. Just use the blue fiberglass mesh and change them every 30 days. He said, The blue fibermesh work just fine if changed, while the other ones reduce air flow and can cause problems within the system.

This really caught my ear as I just replaced my usual blue fiber filter with a new longer lasting better filtering filter. I have had it in for one month and received the highest electric bill I have ever had. Averaging 10 KWH more per day. Nothing else has changed however I think this summer was unusually hot. Everything else seems to be normal but I got concerned.

Is there any truth to what this guy said. I'm wondering if I fell for the old marketing ploy of paying for a "special" filter that actually causes problems.
Your thoughts please.

[BILLG]

Many duct systems are undersized already and adding a restrictive filter only makes matters worse. So yes he was right to steer you away from that kind of filter. Like they say, you can't put 3 pounds in a 1 pound bag.

[ToUtahNow]

There are filters made which will do a better job of filtering without reducing flow but they are thicker and would need a new filter rack.

Mark

[paulgrandy]

I think this filter thing is a scam. I just change the cheap ones every couple of months. Problem is I'm thinking about getting a new Trane and their filters are 5" wide and they want about $50 bucks apiece. I'm sure they're going to say to change them every couple of months. Sounds like Jiffy Lube and the 3K thing. Maybe I'll just find a W X D for the 1 inchers and stick 5 of them in there. And that yearly service visit? What kind of crap is that. You get the 10 year warranty and add on the additional 10 year for that not included stuff. I guess they're going to show up and look everything over and say, "Oh your condenser is dirty". For $50 bucks I'll clean it.

[hvacinstaller]

Hey Paul if you have ever checked out the airflow with a magnohelic and used different filters?? If you have you will quickly find out there is a difference between a cheap filter and a more expensive. So basically how could it be a scam if it is true.