Have you taken a good look at your home’s energy expenses? There are a lot of things you could do to significantly lower them. Some are obvious, such as remembering to turn off the lights in rooms when no one’s using them or powering down high-wattage electrical appliances. But what about your air conditioning?
It’s no secret that AC units can drive up energy costs, sometimes by as much as twice the amount that you would pay if you didn’t have one installed at all. You don’t want to live in a home with no air conditioning, so use these tips to reduce your power expenditures.
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Smart Scheduling your AC
In many regions, it’s not only heat that causes discomfort, but the humidity. Drier regions may not have this problem, but moisture in the air can still occur, especially if there’s a sizable body of water near where you live. This combination of heat and moisture tends to be at its highest during the afternoon and evening hours, then dissipating early in the morning.
On a typical day in the spring and summer months, your home may not experience an uncomfortable rise in temperature until noon has passed. If this is the case, you can schedule your aircon to run between the hours where the heat and humidity are at their highest, increasing the time between running intervals in the early morning hours.
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Installing a Ducted Aircon
In primary school, we’re taught that the warmer air becomes, the higher it rises in altitude. The same process also happens indoors. Ducted systems are specifically designed to cool homes down by taking advantage of the placement of vents and the slow movement of cool air.
Cooler air is affected more by the earth’s gravity and tends to be stable, moving faster when given the chance to warm up. For this reason, a ducted system can be placed in a strategic position around the home where the cool air will last the longest, either close to the ceiling, floor, or near to the windows.
Combined with a home’s embedded insulation between the walls, this lowers the need for running the AC at all hours of the day and night. Ducted ACs operate by using air from the outside and moving it to a centralized location indoors. You can combine this with the scheduling mentioned in the first section. The result is filter changes and enough comfort to run the aircon for only a few hours a day.
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Use Natural Cooling Techniques
Unless the pollen count outside of your residence is very high, try and get some fresh air to come inside by opening up your windows. Buy some screens for the windows if you don’t already have them to prevent bugs and other unwanted pests from getting inside. Shut off the air conditioner and place a fan nearby the windows, which will help air come inside on days where there are no wind gusts.
Saving Energy is Easy
Most energy-saving ideas are easy to come up with. Some may have their own concepts thought up through lots of experimentation. It’s great when the tips that are shown are combined with other personal concepts. But there’s no reason to make yourself uncomfortable while trying to drop your energy costs.
