It’s hot, and the air conditioner is the only thing keeping you sane. Sweating and slogging around the humid house isn’t a great way to spend the weekend. If you want to spend less on your monthly air conditioning bill, you don’t have to turn off the AC entirely.
Instead, find ways to get more mileage out of the cool air you do produce with these tips on how to cut your air conditioning expenses.
Cool the inside, not the outside!
Any air leaking out of your home is a costly problem.
Cool air drains through the smallest of holes quicker than you realize, the same way a dripping faucet wastes hundreds of dollars of water a year.
Take a close look at all your windows and doors to make sure the seal is good.
A lot of homeowners overlook the attic. To keep the cool air in your living space, make sure attic insulation is spread about 14 inches deep.
Close the blinds, don’t let the sunshine in.
When you leave a room or when you leave the house, draw the blinds or drapes, or whatever window covering you have. Just block out the sun!
Less heat entering the house through windows in unoccupied rooms (or an entire unoccupied house) means your air conditioner uses less energy to cool the same space.
So block the windows and turn the AC off when you leave the house. It’ll only take a short time to cool the house down again when you return.
Put your thermostat in the right place.
Where is your thermostat?
If it sits on the wall opposite a big, hot window, your air conditioner will run more than it needs (because it thinks the whole house is much hotter than it actually is).
The best thermostat location is:
- In a room your family uses often.
- On an interior wall.
Ceiling fans – use ‘em if you got ‘em.
You don’t always need to blast the AC to feel cooler at home.
A ceiling fan produces a significant cooling effect, up to 5 degrees of relief (which is a lot, when you feel the difference) and only use about 10% of the energy a central air conditioner uses.
Run the ceiling fan counter clockwise in the summer, blowing air straight down into the room and creating that cool breeze. The cool breeze expedites your body’s natural cooling process. It moves the warmth your body releases through the pores away, allowing you to shed more warmth, faster.
Not that you needed to know those details, but now you do.
Put these tips to work and you will (HOPEFULLY) never run into a surprise $600 bill for staying cool during one of our summer heatwaves.
You can always call us to see if a current promotion can help cut back on your expenses even more.