Jun 21
Tips For Reducing Your Cooling Bill
Today is Summer solstice. As we are in the peak of summer, you can do the following to save on your cooling bill:
1) Are you the type of person who likes to keep the thermostat at 71 degrees in the summer? Bump the thermostat a degree or two higher. You won't notice the difference, but your budget should.
2) Going to work for the day? Don't turn off your central AC when you leave. Instead, keep your room somewhat cool (about 75-78 degrees). When you arrive home, return the temperature to your comfort level.
3) Buy an electronic, programmable thermostat. Duh! This will help you automate the above tips.
4) Last, but not least, ration your oven use and try to bake at night when the sun is down and it's naturally cooler.
Comments
Place a ceiling fan in the rooms you spend the most time. They use a fraction of the energy of your ac and you can keep the ac temp 5+ degrees higher since the cold air circulates better. They'll pay for themselves in a single season.
another tip: close off rooms you're not using. we have 1800 sq ft, but only use a couple of rooms. So we close the doors and vents in the rooms we don't use. it adds up.
Just make sure there is no temperature sensor in the room being cut off, or you'll make the system work harder....
An extensive list of things you can do to cool your home more efficiently, in regards to using less electricity, can be found here.
This article directly contradicts blog post:
"Also, remember to turn off your air conditioner once your home has reached a comfortable temperature. By coupling minimum air conditioning with reducing the amount of heat entering your home, you can keep it cool without using excess energy. It isn’t recommended that you leave your air conditioner on when you leave your house, but if you’re going to do so, turn the temperature setting up a few more degrees while you’re gone to about 28° C (82° F). Also, remember to turn off your air conditioner if you’re going to be away from your home for more than a day."
I trust the article more.
You can also turn off surge protectors and power supplies (ie. phone chargers) which drain power even when devices are off.
I always turn off the central air when I leave - are you saying that's worse than just turning it down? I've just never heard that before - is that because it has to work hard when I come back home to cool the house down again?
Yeah, the post is wrong. It's always better to turn it off, esp. if the leaving time is over 4-5 hours or so. Don't believe everything you read :)
It is right that the longer your out the house the greater the benefit of turning the AC off. If away for shorter periods as about 4 or 8 hours you can turn the temp up to about 82 to 84 F. The exact times and temperature depend on the size of the house, its energy efficiency and the recovery time of your air conditioner. You should be able to get your house comfortable after returning in a few hours of normal operations. Do those things that will keep the house from getting too hot as pulling curtains, turning off heat generating devices, or even letting ceiling fans run if the departure time is not long. Some thinking will bring up some more practical ways to reduce use of excess energy.
You can't always believe what commenters say either. :) I think everything is relative to where you live and how hot it gets. If you live in Las Vegas in the summer, it takes a lot more to cool down your house if you've turned off the AC in 100 degree plus weather (as Max maintains). As is the case with most advice, you have to make sure it's relative to you and back it up with other info you can find. I thought this was good general advice.
That depends on what area you live in. I live in Florida and my AC broke at noon one day, got fixed the next. In that 24 hour period, the house warmed up so much, the AC took 18 hours to bring the temperature back down to normal.
Also, the humidity in Florida is so high that turning off the AC could result in unwanted mold.
These suggestions are for non-city folk:
1. Don't live in a city, they're hotter than places with trees and dirt
2. I try to live in a house that's under a tree or two
3. Open your windows at night, turn off the air-conditioner
4. Try not using the air-conditioner, it's not that bad
5. If you must chug away on AC, make sure all windows are super-insulated and multi layer your curtains and blinds . . . and brick and stone buildings are the way to go
6. Keep the lights low and use electronics as seldom as possible
7. Sometimes I get a bowl full of ice and set it next to the fan, dat's what folks did in New Orleans before AC
8. Drink a beer, then some water, then go pee, repeat . . .
9. Your office in the attic was a bad idea
10. Sit in the bathtub, eat codeine and popsicles
I agree with all but #3, (4), 5b, 8, and 10.
3:If you live in an area that stays hot at night, when you go to turn on your a/c in the morning, it will have to constantly work hard to bring the temp down. Most a/c units should try to maintain your set temperature, and will not take up a lot of power when not adjusting.
4: If you live in a very hot climate, and aren't completely accustomed to the heat, going without a/c or swamp cooler is a bad idea, because you don't know how to live without it. It would be like telling someone who has never driven in snow that they don't need chains for their car while driving through the Rockies in Winter.
5b: It is true that if you have many layers on your windows, it will help insulate your house. But brick and stone aren't the best hot climate building material, as they will wanna keep in the heat more than releasing it. Picture building a house inside a brick oven. However, this changes if you build a house underground or in a cave, because the stone, bricks, and soil retain the cool of the earth. Even basements would help. (Hint to housing developers and architects: if you can put pools in, you can build basements)
8: Drinking equal parts water to alcohol is always a good call. Alcohol (and caffiene) are diuretics, they prompt your body to get rid of water. And if you are dehydrated, even if you do not sense it, you can get seriously overheated. So if you are gonna be in a hot climate, you really should be drinking lots of water, or at least, stuff without alcohol and caffiene.
10: I fail to see how taking unessessary medication is going to help someone in a hot climate. If the symptoms of Hyperthermia are setting in, you really need to be able to feel them to know to change your stituation quickly or get worse.
Everyone who read this article should read this one as well: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
If the rate of heat transfer is proportional to the difference in temperature between the two bodies, it doesn't make sense to leave the ac on. You are wasting energy. Unless your house is perfectly insulated, in which case it wouldn't matter any.
Sure the AC has to work harder if your house heats up during the day, but it would be less energy used than running at a higher temp throughout the day. Right?
Can somebody explain if this isn incorrect?
Thanks.
(I leave in Texas so this could be important to my wallet)
also, leaving ceiling fans on increases the temp of a room. more heat and energy (same thing, i know) added to the room. Of course, if there is a person under the fan, then it is the best part of the room ans it forces faster evaporation of sweat and sweeps away air that was being heated to 98.6 and replaces it with room temp air
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It used to be that during the afternoon, even the shades could not block the heat from entering the house through our west-facing windows.
This summer we made an excellent investment in installing Window Tint for our windows. Total cost was $300. An there is even a federal tax credit for window film purchases for this year.
The window film reflects 40% of the sunlight away from the house, so it takes much longer for the house to get hot enough to require AC. So far we are saving $50 a month in cooling costs compared to last year. In just a little over a year, we will have recouped our investment.
The best part is that we are helping the environment by using less energy, and the window film lasts for 10-15 years, so we will save money in the long run.
I don't see window tints listed on that page about tax credits. Can you verify that there is a credit on this, and how one goes about qualifying?
71 or 75 are they kidding? It's normally 100 -101 or more outside here . I set it at 78. Turn off when gone or at work. Set at 86 if gone for 3 or 4 hours. Close off rooms not in use. Turn off AC and open windows at night when possible.
We live where it is currently, on average, 102 right now. We live in an apartment and are trying to figure out ways to make our cooling usage more efficient. Unfortunatly we cannot put up the reflective coating due to our landlord. I have to say that the "blackout"curtains that we purchased have cut the heat on the north/west side of our apartment down significantly (we are in the process of purchasing them for all windows). I know this might seem a little much (you do what you have to) but we have tacked (thumbtacks) these blackout curtains to the wall to seal as much as we can out. We know that our complex is fairly old and the windows are a joke. I am tempted to purchase the weather stripping you were talking about to put at the base of the window but that still leaves other areas that the window will seep out air. We have purchased several fans for the apartment because, while we have vents, they are not very well placed for optimum movement of air. We have no idea how much more it costs to have a/c running vs. fans.... does anyone? Either one of us have lived in other places of the country where it gets this hot but the insulation/sealing of the abodes were soooo much better. We also heard that if you shade the a/c unit, it will work better...? Any comment? How do you shade the unit when it needs to be able to vent out the air? We have a digital thermostat.... Is it better to keep at one temp or to fluctuate? We've heard several differnt things? Help,please.