As much as summer is a great time to spend outdoors with friends and family, many homeowners are worried about the amount of money they spend cooling their houses.
How do I use the AC to lower my electric bill? You will hear them asking.
According to AC repair services providers, there are plenty of ways you can go about it with the common ones being:
Set your air conditioner at the right default temperature
The bureau of energy efficiency (BEE) advises homeowners to keep their default temperature at 24 degrees instead of the popular 20 degrees.
Studies done by various bodies show that for every degree of temperature you raise on your air conditioner, you save about 6% of electricity. This means that when you raise your temperature by 4 degrees, you save up to 24% of your energy consumption.
Seal the house and shut electronic devices
To keep the cool air in the house, you should seal the house. If your house is old, chances are it has leaking areas that you should seal before you start using the AC. Unless you are trained in sealing, let an experienced professional do the work.
You should seal all areas of the house including the windows and doors.
When you are in the house, keep the doors and windows closed at all times to keep as much cool air in the house as possible.
To keep out the solar heat that will make the air conditioner overwork, pull the curtains so the sun’s rays don’t enter the house.
Experts also recommend you switch off heavy electronic devices such as fridges, TV and computer. This is because the devices generate a lot of heat that makes the AC work harder.
If you have to use them, give the room time to cool then switch them back on.
Make use of the fan
If you have a fan in your house, you should use it to your advantage and use it together with the air conditioner. You might have the impression that when you turn the fan and the air conditioner on at the same time you hike your electricity bill, but this isn’t the case.
The fan distributes the cool air throughout the house so the air conditioner doesn’t work too hard to cool the air in the entire house.
Switch off the AC when not using it
There is no point in keeping the AC on and consuming a lot of energy. So, to keep your energy bills low, switch off the air conditioner when you aren’t using it. This includes at night when you are sleeping and during the day when you are out working.
While this is a perfect way to save energy, it can easily become boring and tedious and you let the AC run all the time. To have an easy time switching the AC on and off, invest in a programmable thermostat.
This is a modern unit that allows you to easily set your desired temperature so that you can make the most of your AC. The beauty is that you can operate the thermostat even from your place of work so you can set it to start working so that by the time you are getting home, you find a cool, fresh house.
Create a cool roof
To reduce the amount of heat that gets into your house from the roof, you should turn your roof cool. One of the ways to do it is to apply the right color to the roof.
As a rule of thumb, apply light colors as they reflect most of the sun’s rays and heat so you have a naturally cooler house meaning that the AC doesn’t have to work too hard to maintain low temperatures in the house.
Keep the AC in top shape
Like your car or any other appliance, a poorly maintained AC functions inefficiently so you have high-energy bills at the end of the month.
To reverse this you should keep your AC in top shape.
How do you do this?
Start with replacing the air filters at least once every three months. You also should hire an air conditioner repair services McLean provider at least once a year to go through your unit and fix any issues present.
